Today is the 43rd day of the 105-day legislative session. We continue to focus on helping the legislature understand the critical need for policy and budget support for the skilled nursing, assisted living, and enhanced services facilities we represent. We are six weeks in, with just over eight weeks left in the 2023 session, and there is much left to be done. One in three Washington seniors will require long term care services and support, and there are immediate actions the legislature can take to ensure better access for the growing population of individuals who will need care.
Budget Advocacy Tops the Agenda
The stakes are great for our members who provide care to Washington state Medicaid clients. The 2023-2025 state operating budget will affect Medicaid funding through June 30, 2025. For this budget plan, we are asking the Legislature to improve base Medicaid funding for SNF, AL, and ESF providers, and to drive funding to support “difficult to discharge” hospital residents.
We have provided the Legislature with key data indicators about our workforce crisis and the connection to Medicaid funding. Medicaid funding shortfalls drive long term care staffing shortages that hamper individual care centers statewide and affect the entire health care delivery system. Thus, funding improvements are critical to people who need care in hospitals and in long term care settings.
People are backed up in hospitals throughout Washington because there are such limited long term care options. It is simply not feasible to hire and retain workers at 2020 costs (SNFs), or with Medicaid rates that are dialed back to 68 percent of the actual cost of care (AL). Compounding hospital backlogs are the “difficult to discharge” residents who require additional behavioral and/or clinical supports. We must ask the legislature to do more to address the workforce shortage, which truly is a public health crisis. See our funding and workforce priorities.
Priority Medicaid bill scheduled for Ways and Means this Tuesday. We are asking the Legislature to make important policy improvements to the skilled nursing facility Medicaid payment standards by passing SSB 5526. Here’s the WHCA briefing on the legislation. This week, we have important work, starting with Tuesday’s hearing on the legislation in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Unless deemed necessary to implement the budget, legislation must pass the fiscal committee in the house of origin by this Friday at 5 pm. Last week, SSB 5526 passed the Senate Health and LTC Committee on a unanimous vote. The bill was referred to Ways and Means and is scheduled for a public hearing on Tuesday. It’s critical that legislators hear about this important legislation. Special thanks to Senators Kevin Van De Wege (D-24) and Ron Muzzall (R-10) for their sponsorship.
We need your help:
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Sign in to support the legislation here. Your support will be noted in the legislative record.
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Reach out to your community to seek support for the legislation. Ask your friends, family members, and employees to email legislators to ask for support for Medicaid funding. Display this poster or use it as a flyer to distribute in your facilities to promote legislative outreach.
Your advocacy is critical this week to help ensure that SSB 5526 advances.
The next 30 days are critical as budget development continues. Our focused budget advocacy is essential in the next month. Senate budget writers will release a budget shortly after the state economic forecast is released on March 20. The House budget will follow shortly after. The state operating budget bill contains specific directions about the funding for skilled nursing, assisted living, and enhanced services facilities. We have been working with legislative proponents on funding provisos for inclusion in the state operating plan. Special thanks to Representative Jessica Bateman (D-22) and her Senate colleague Senator Sam Hunt (D-22) for advancing budget language to support assisted living funding. Senator Steve Conway (D-29) has agreed to forward a funding proposal and an improved referral process for Enhanced Services Facilities to support “difficult to discharge” hospital residents for inclusion in the Senate budget.
Continued Focus on the Long Term Care Workforce
There is much policy work centered on the long term care workforce this session, and we continue to amplify our members’ voices in these issues. We are seeking simplifications to overly burdensome, time and resource-intensive licensing, and certification processes for long term care workers including home care aides, certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, and registered nurses. We want to see additional resources and options for nurse education and training, and we support legislation that would add Washington to the multistate Nurse Licensure Compact. We also support legislation to drive standards and oversight for nursing pools providing temporary staffing in long term care and hospital settings.
Here’s a rundown of current policy initiatives on the workforce:
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SB 5582—Reducing barriers and expanding educational opportunities to increase the supply of nurses in Washington. Sponsored by Senator Jeff Holy (R-6), the bill was subject to hearing in Senate Ways and Means on Saturday.
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SB 5278—Implementing audit recommendations to reduce barriers to home care aide certification. Sponsored by Senator Lynda Wilson (R-17), the bill requires the Departments of Health and Social and Health Services to address delays between training and testing, the lack of test sites, and performance and contract management processes, by completing specific requirements and submitting a preliminary report to the Governor and Legislature no later than June 30, 2024. Read the bill report.
No tax on senior meals.
This week, SHB 1431, legislation that clarifies that senior meals are not subject to tax, passed from the House Finance Committee to Rules Committee. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Joe Timmons (D-42). Once SHB 1431 is pulled from Rules, it will be eligible for a vote on the House floor. The legislation must pass by March 8 to be considered in the Senate. Read the McKnight’s News article on the legislation. WHCA hosted four senior advocates who testified on the legislation earlier this month.
February: Have A Heart for Seniors Month
It was an honor to represent WHCA members on February 14, when our policy team worked with LeadingAge Washington to pass out handmade valentines from our members, along with valentine cookies, as part of our awareness campaign to remind legislators to “Have A Heart” for seniors. The Valentines were beautiful, nostalgic, and well-received by senior advocates and others who checked in with us during the event.
