The Final Report of the Nursing Facility Task Force was submitted to the legislature earlier this week and contains a series of policy options related to four main themes: Right sizing the nursing home sector; Establish a reasonable and sustainable rate structure for nursing and rest homes; Promote high quality care in nursing and rest homes; Ensure a sustainable workforce serving the care needs of individuals across the entire long-term care continuum.
Mass Senior Care Association President Tara Gregorio stated that “the Association is grateful to have participated in the Nursing Facility Task Force deliberations and that the policy options contained in the final report represent a strong foundation and framework for legislative and regulatory action to address the ongoing financial and workforce crisis impacting the Commonwealth’s 383 skilled nursing facilities.”
In particular, Gregorio urged immediate action on the policy option that state funding for this vital safety net service be updated using more current costs to ensure quality resident care and necessary workforce investments. The Association is actively urging lawmakers to include in their FY 2021 budget recommendation an update in nursing home funding using the most recent 2018 cost reports and to inflate those costs to FY 2021 using CMS’s skilled nursing facility inflation standard.
Mass Senior Care members Rich Bane, President of BaneCare, Naomi Prendergast, President/CEO, D’Youville Life and Wellness Community and Patrick Stapleton, Chief Executive Officer, Sherrill House also participated on the Nursing Facility Task Force.
Mass Senior Care continues to urge members to join us in our grassroots advocacy efforts to address the financial and workforce crisis. Please ask your staff, residents and their families to join the answering the call to care campaign at www.MACallToCare.org or text “CALLTOCARE” to 52886.