Two-percent Medicaid increases have been the norm over the last few years in Wisconsin, but this year was supposed to be different.
The Legislature last month passed a two-year spending plan that committed an additional $74 million to skilled nursing facilities between 2019 and 2021. It included a 7% increase in state Medicaid funding to start July 1 (earlier this week) and a 1% increase next summer.
But Gov. Tony Evers (D) has yet to sign the Republican-backed bill, largely over conservatives’ refusal to support Medicaid expansion in the state.
LeadingAge Wisconsin and others last week urged Evers to act on at least parts of the budget, citing about $234 million earmarked for long-term care and family care programs. The state’s nursing home industry is at a tipping point, with 11 nursing homes having closed by May of this year and another 27 in receivership. Meanwhile, one in five caregiver positions remains vacant in the state, according to Wisconsin Health Care Association.
“The need to address long-term care funding and workforce issues is really not a partisan issue,” President and CEO John Sauer told McKnight’s on Tuesday. “What the Legislature did is really recognize that there is a crisis out there and we’re going to need to focus on our long-term care facilities more … if we’re going to fix that.”
LeadingAge Wisconsin represents more than 200 nursing homes, facilities for the developmentally disabled, independent and assisted living facilities and community service agencies, and Sauer said he and those members have been working the phone lines with added urgency this week.
The nursing home Medicaid increase could help cut into Wisconsin’s per-resident day shortfall, which averages more than $78. The legislators’ deal includes $47.6 million more than Evers proposed with a 2.5% annual increase.
The plan also includes $67 million over two years for Family Care Direct Care funding, which is typically used for assisted living, and $91 million to increase Medicaid reimbursements for at-home personal care services.
Evers could sign parts of the budget and veto others, or reject it outright. The deadline is Friday. No Wisconsin governor has killed an entire spending plan since the 1800s, and Sauer is hoping history is on the providers’ side.
If not, it could be back to the drawing board, where negotiations could undo the pending gains. To make matters worse, lawmakers have said they would not return for another session until October, meaning any new rates would be instituted many months after the typical July 1 start of the fiscal year.
