March 24, 2023
Happy Friday everyone. The calendar says that Spring is here but in northeast Kansas, we are still waiting for mother nature to get the memo. This week started out early Monday morning in Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee lead by Senator Beverly Gossen, with final action on HB 2125 which allows for temporary tattooing at charitable events. They took our cosmetology bill (allowing KDADS to continue regulating cosmetology space) and wrapped it into this bill. It passed out favorably. 

We next had a meeting with Representative Harry Helgerson, ranking minority leader on the House appropriations committee. The meeting was at his request to review our KDADS budget requests for FY 2024. His reaction was favorable.

Finally, we met with House appropriations chairman, Representative Troy Waymaster on the same issue. He too, seemed to understand the reasons for our ask. To review, our requests are: 

1. Add an additional 14 million State General Funds (SGF), 34.5 million all funds to Governors Budget recommendation.
a. Result - Rebases SFY 2024 Nursing Facility rates using the average of the three most recent cost reports and inflation based on the midpoint of the most recent cost report year. The fiscal note according to KDADS would be a total of 72 million in all funds with 29 million being SGF. The current proposed budget only asks for 37.5 million in all funds with 15 million being SGF. The additional ask would fund the statutorily require amount to the limits they are currently held to.
 
2. Add new funds of $24,671,128 SGF, 61.68 million all funds. To establish an add-on for nursing homes based on the percentage of Medicaid residents that they serve.
a. Formula: 3,083,891 Medicaid days (from 2021 cost report) X $20 = $61,677,820 All funds. $24,671,128 SGF. Distribute per Medicaid resident based on the percentage of Medicaid Residents as reported on annual cost report with a range of added dollars per day from $2 for the homes serving the lowest amount of Medicaid residents up to $25 per day for homes who serve over 80% Medicaid residents. 

Distribution
3. Add an additional 4.7 SGF, 11 million all funds to the HCBS/FE funding for licensed adult care homes.
Continued increases in staffing costs, food costs, energy costs and nearly everything else, we are requesting a 10% increase to the Frail Elder (FE) rate on units of care in licensed adult care homes. The cost is estimated at 11 million dollars in all funds with 4.7 million in SGF. This would bring the per unit (15 minutes) from $5.04 to $5.54.

On Tuesday, we received the projected amount from KDADS based on the 2022 cost report data which showed a significantly higher amount of funds would be needed to fully rebase and inflate the FY 24 NH rates. Those numbers are:
*This is an estimated cost of a full rebase and inflation adjustments for FY24 Nursing Facility rates. A full rebase for FY24 would include cost report years from 2020-21-22 with an inflation adjustment through 12/31/23. This is a preliminary estimate based on an early analysis of 2022 cost reports submitted by Nursing Facilities.

Members of the House appropriations Committee were sent the updated numbers.
Add an additional 19 million SGF, 48.3 million all funds to Governors Budget recommendation.
 
On Wednesday, we met with KDADS to discuss the possible scenarios for rate setting based on the latest cost report information. No recommendations were made pending the final budget appropriations.

The House appropriations committee did pass out our original ask as stated above with the commitment to increase the final amount to include 2022 costs when the budget is heard in conference committee.

Should you have additional questions, please let me know. I am honored and privileged to serve each and every one of you. 
Linda MowBray
President/CEO
(785) 267-6003
In Other News
iQIES Planned System Interruption on Saturday, March 25

Due to scheduled maintenance, the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES) may experience brief downtime and interruptions on Saturday, March 25, from 9:30 a.m. ET until 11:30 a.m. CT. 

For questions about this information, please contact our QIES/iQIES Service Center by phone at (800) 339-9313 or send an email. Please note that call volume may be higher than normal during this time.  
Kansas Health Care Association and the Kansas Center for Assisted Living
1100 SW Gage Blvd Topeka, KS 66604
PH: 785-267-6003 FAX: 785-267-0833