Blog

MHCA Leadership to Attend Congressional Briefing Next Week

Representatives from the Maine Health Care Association will be attending AHCA/NCAL Congressional Briefing in Washington DC on June 6-7. Meetings have been scheduled with Senator Collins, Senator King, Representative Pingree and Representative Golden.  
 
MHCA Congressional Briefing Attendees will include:
  • Angela Westhoff, MHCA President/ CEO
  • John Bolduc, MHCA Board Member & Executive Director, Odd Fellows & Rebekah's Home
  • Jessica Duffy, MHCA Board Member & Director of Health Services at 75 State Street
  • Amanda Nelson, MHCA Member & Executive Director, Oak Grove Center
More than 500 skilled nursing providers are expected to attend Congressional Briefing to press federal lawmakers for solutions on staffing and revenue issues that are impacting access to long term care.           
 
We know that the long term care sector is facing a 15-year labor low, losing more than 400,000 jobs since the pandemic began. Nearly every nursing home and assisted living community in the United States is facing a workforce crisis. In addition to the staffing crisis, we will also be talking with members of about CMS Parity Adjustment proposal.
 
For FY 2023, CMS has proposed a Skilled Nursing Facility net rate cut of 0.7% resulting from a 3.9% adjusted market basket increase offset by a 4.6% parity adjustment reduction. CMS is proposing parity adjustment to ensure costs under the new Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) are no more than under the old payment system. The proposed parity adjustment would result in a net $320 Million reduction of SNF payments in FY 23, and the sector cannot absorb this cut.
 
Our ask in Washington will be to have CMS phase in this reduction over three years (i.e. 1.5% per year) and work with the long term care sector to ensure that the annual Market Basket update adequately accounts for labor cost increases. AHCA has developed a detailed summary of the impact of the payment reductions in the proposed rule.
 
MHCA members are strongly encouraged to submit comments to CMS on the proposed cuts by June 10th by 5:00 pm.  
 
Staff contact: awesthoff@mehca.org