This afternoon, skilled nursing providers will receive notice from the state of Washington that they will be receiving a $13 PPD add-on effective July 1, 2020. What the notice may or may not say is that the $13 PPD add-on will be reduced to $5 PPD for August and September and likely disappear after that. The Governor’s office has decided to eliminate the FMAP enhancement of $29 PPD. Now all FMAP funding will go into the general fund, robbing Medicaid providers of much needed relief.
The Governor’s office pretends that the new July 1, 2020 rate, which resulted from the rebase, should be enough to cover COVID-19 expenses. Make no mistake, what the Governor fails to consider is that the long-awaited rebase was to try to catch nursing homes up to a more current funding level moving the sector from 2016 costs to 2018 costs. Even that was inadequate, but it was a start. Now, the conversation has shifted and they are applying the rebase to cover not only a terribly inadequate funding stream but additional funding for COVID-19. The rebase brought us up to 2018 costs! The $29 FMAP funding was covering incremental COVID-19 expenses in 2020. Now it is gone and we get $13, then $5, then nothing for COVID-19. The state has taken the FMAP money and pocketed that funding source.
We are not giving up. We will continue to fight. We cannot allow the Governor and his minions at the Office of Financial Management (OFM) to continue to ignore what it takes to fight the fight that you all are engaged in. We will continue to keep you informed. Please go to the
WHCA Advocacy page
and register your outrage with your legislators and the Governor’s office today!!
