NYS Budget 2025 Update: What You Need To Know

May 7, 2025

The State Legislature started to print final versions of budget bills last late night, but not all bills had been introduced at the time of this update. As HCANYS reported extensively, there were many priority issues with tremendous potential impact on the home healthcare and managed care sectors that were pending through the end of the negotiation period.

The following preliminary overview of the budget bills provides a high-level view of where those priority issues landed; HCANYS will continue to analyze and interpret the legislative language through the weekend, providing a more detailed summary to the membership early next week.

OVERALL:

A major priority of HCANYS was the inclusion of home care funding. In response to HCANYS, the Senate and Assembly one-house budget bills included $30 million in combined state/federal funding for certified home health agencies. That funding remained on the table until the final days, perhaps hours, of the budget negotiations when final additions in the overall state budget were decided. Regrettably, without the Governor as a partner in the funding add for home care, the Legislature was not able to sustain the $30 million addition on the final ledger within the amounts available for budget adds. The Governor’s original budget proposed $45 million through the State Office for the Aging for programs and services provided to older New Yorkers across the State, of which home care will be part, and the Legislature agreed to the final budget with this Executive appropriation. We look forward to the benefit of the NYSOFA appropriation, and will continue to appeal to the Executive and Legislature post-budget to provide urgent funding for home care. HCANYS will be immediately requesting action by the Legislature to advance legislative bills for S.6981/A.1493 and S.7052/A.7013, respectively, fund an annual state aid program for home care, and provide rate support for the certified home health agency episodic reimbursement system.
For the third year in a row, despite considerable advocacy from across the healthcare continuum, the final budget falls short in the delivery of much-needed support for all sectors during a period when crises in care delivery are plaguing the entire system due to shortages in workforce, financing and capacity.

HCANYS was successful in leading the effort to omit in the final budget a highly concerning proposal made by Governor Hochul that would have allowed hospitals to provide care in the home without an Article 36 or 40 license, and without a licensed partner. In our advocacy to the Legislature and Executive, HCANYS staff, Board and members presented the extensive and outstanding hospital-home care collaborative models being operated across the state providing acute and critical care, primary and preventive care, emergency room diversion, pre- and post-surgical programs, and other services, demonstrating effective and appropriate approaches for pursuing “acute care at home” models. HCANYS provided the Governor and Legislature with alternative language built around these outstanding collaboration models, and explaining to the Governor and Legislature that the Governor’s proposal was both an unnecessary route and would amount to a flagrant violation of state licensure requirements. As the Executive was not amenable to amendment during the budget, the Legislature rightly rejected and omitted this Executive proposal from the final budget.

The budget restores the MLTC/PACE plan quality pools, which was also a HCANYS priority. The amount of the restoration is not available at this time and HCANYS will report that funding level as soon as we have it.

As in the proposed budget, there was no modification of the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) in the final budget. Additionally, there was no mention of increased hospice funding, nor the Nurse Licensure Compact Program.

HCANYS will be following the developments around implementation of these proposals very closely, and advocating for the membership’s best interest every step of the way. Please stay tuned for our comprehensive memo.