News

Nurse aides hired or who worked under the 1135 waiver now have until Sept. 11 to be on the Minnesota Nursing Assistant Registry.

This week, legislative leaders and Governor Walz announced they had reached global budget targets for creating Minnesota’s biennial budget (FY2023-2025). This agreement sets the stage for the Legislature to spend the state’s $17.6 billion surplus. According to the agreement, human services has been given a $1.3 billion target for the two-year period, and health care an additional $755 million.

The Long-Term Care Imperative (LTCI) is soliciting proposals from qualified and experienced communications firms to design, plan, and administer a statewide campaign, paired with developing a robust website of resources, to attract new caregivers into Minnesota’s aging services organizations. The goal of the project is to increase the number of available caregivers in Minnesota’s aging services workforce to improve residents’ quality of life in the places they call home.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Deadline for Bids: Noon, 12:00pm, Friday, March 31

The LTCI is a collaboration of LeadingAge Minnesota and Care Providers of Minnesota, the state’s two largest associations of long-term care organizations. This project is supported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Long-Term Care (LTC) Workforce Capacity Building Project.

On July 1, the Housing Support maximum monthly room and board rate will increase to $1,135.

Employer applications are being accepted for the 2023 Summer Health Care Internship Program (SHCIP) now until April 7. Nursing facilities, home care providers, adult day service, hospitals, and clinics are all encouraged to participate.  

Governor Tim Walz recently updated his budget proposal and introduced some new spending initiatives after the most recent budget forecast was released. Unfortunately, those initiatives do not include a rate increase for care centers despite the ongoing staffing and financial challenges. Despite the lack of support from the Governor, the Long-Term Care Imperative continues to work with legislators to advocate for this vitally needed funding.

During National Patient Safety Awareness Week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) highlighted their renewed focus on patient safety because harm is still too common and often preventable in a blog published on its website. Progress in patient safety has significantly declined since the beginning of the pandemic erasing previous patient safety gains.

On March 9, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the Annual Adjustment Factors (AAFs) for 2023, which adjusts rents for certain Section 8 housing assistance payment programs.

This past week Argentum held its annual Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.  The public policy event started on Monday afternoon and culminated with staff advocacy visits with Congressional officials in both the U.S. Senate and House on Wednesday.

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about how you can enter a team in the 2023 LeadingAge Minnesota ICan Quality Improvement Contest. The contest involves developing and implementing a quality improvement project identified and led by front-line staff.

The Minnesota Dual-Training Pipeline Grant is accepting applications until April 3 for employers interested in leveraging the Minnesota Office of Higher Education’s earn-and-learn dual-training model of pairing on-the-job training with classroom instruction.

Careers in Aging Week is next week, March 26 – April 1. Let us raise our collective voice to celebrate careers in aging!

Gene Gustason, a long-time LeadingAge Minnesota member, has announced his retirement from the Stewartville Care Center effective at the end of March. He completes his career in the sector after 29 years at the skilled nursing setting in Stewartville. The Stewartville Care Center is an 85-bed skilled nursing facility for residential and rehabilitative care.

Jennifer Marcus of Vista Prairie Communities has been promoted to the newly created position of Regional Director of Operations within her organization.

Join us for a 30-minute information session to learn how to bring together a team or front-line staff to participate in the 2023 ICan Contest.  The contest involves developing and implementing Quality Improvement projects identified and led by front-line staff.