February 23, 2024
Greetings!

There are just 13 days left in the 2024 legislative session and budget negotiations will be focused on reconciling the differences between the Senate and House proposals that were released on Sunday and Monday this week. Both were subject to public hearings on Monday in Ways and Means and Appropriations. Our special appreciation for the advocates who showed up to testify on the proposals: 


This important testimony helps escalate the importance of this funding with their legislators. The House plan is the better budget proposal for assisted living. Both budgets appear to support the implementation of the federal acuity data from the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) for skilled nursing Medicaid payments beginning July 1, 2024.  
House Budget Proposal for Assisted Living  

The House budget is clearly the best proposal for assisted living Medicaid funding, with $16.5 million in state funds ($33 million total funds) invested in three important areas: 

  • The labor component of the assisted living rates methodology increases from 79 percent to 84 percent funding.  
  • The specialized dementia care rate add-on increases from $43.48 per day to $55 per day. 
  • One-time “bridge funding” is extended to facilities that have 70 percent or greater census of Medicaid residents. The current funding is allocated to facilities serving a client census of 90 percent or greater.  

Rep. Nicole Macri (D-43) is the lead on long-term care funding in the House budget. We are grateful for her thoughtful leadership to continue efforts to fully fund the assisted living rates model, improve rates to care for residents with additional care needs related to dementia, and recognize the needs of providers serving a significant majority of clients relying on Medicaid.  

We fully appreciate and back the House proposal for funding, and we strongly encourage our members to weigh in to support the House proposal with their own legislators. 

Funding is necessary THIS year—and it will take your action to help drive that message. 
Send a message to your legislators today. Make it a priority to ask others to support this effort. Here’s a flyer you can download and print, with a link to share with friends, family, and community members to engage them in this advocacy work:
PDPM Legislation on the Move

On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee will act on SSB 5802. This is DSHS request legislation to implement the PDPM (the data source necessary to tie Medicaid payments to resident acuity in skilled nursing facilities). The data source replaces the RUGs data that was retired by CMS in October 2023. We appreciate the progress of this legislation and believe there is a strong commitment to mitigating significant rate swings. We also appreciate the acknowledgement that careful stakeholder work is necessary to implement PDPM and have reached out to DSHS to affirm our support for this important work. Special thanks to Bill Ulrich, Consolidated Billing Services, for his efforts in this area. 
Rent Control Legislation Advances

Last week we reported about HB 2114, the contentious legislation that would amend the Landlord Tenant Act to create additional protections for tenants. The bill passed the House, and continued to advance this week with a hearing yesterday in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The Senate version of the bill did not make it out of committee and is now considered a “dead” bill for this legislative session.  
Staff Credentialling Backlogs Threaten Care

We continue to hear from our members about serious delays in credentialling at the Department of Health. Despite our outreach to the Department of Health, the Governor’s Office and DSHS, we have seen little movement. While it is too late to ask the 2024 legislature to address this issue, we are pursuing alternative advocacy plans, and we need your help. These backlogs drive employee turnover, threaten jobs, and impact hands-on personal care services to vulnerable people.  

We are seeking your direct feedback about this crisis. Please make it a priority to complete a short survey regarding the impact of Department of Health backlogs. Your information will be used to underscore the effect of these unacceptable delays. 
As always, we appreciate your support and your advocacy, and remain committed to being your voice in Olympia.