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On March 28, US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the President’s FY24 budget proposal. Top aging services issues were discussed, such as the Three-Day Hospital Stay Requirement, Nursing Home Mandatory Staffing Ratios, and Home and Community Based Services (HCBS).

The Minnesota House Human Services Committee released its omnibus finance bill this week. The budget bill includes some priority legislation like Elderly Waiver funding and a PACE rate study but stops short of investing in skilled nursing care for older adults.

This new resource includes a 10-minute recording with an accompanying exercise and discussion handout. Gather your nurses, particularly staff nurses and direct care nurses, to watch the recording and work through the exercise together.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This new resource includes a 10-minute recording with an accompanying exercise and discussion handout. Gather your nurses, particularly staff nurses and direct care nurses, to watch the recording and work through the exercise together.

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

Temporary nurse aides who worked under the 1135 CMS waiver have until Aug. 5 to be placed on the Nursing Assistant Registry. OnTrack Nursing Assistant Training is here to help providers with this transition process.

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.

Around the state, LeadingAge Minnesota members have been lifting their voices and sharing their stories in the media to advance our goal of supporting seniors and their caregivers through legislative action.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is starting to share the preliminary resident quality of life results from the current round of surveys.  Care centers can visit the DHS Provider Portal, click the Resident Quality of Life Ratings tab, and finally, the 2022 Observed Quality of Life Scores link.

Over 100 members came together this week at LeadingAge Minnesota’s Day at the Capitol, the first in-person day since 2019 after years of COVID-related restrictions. The strong showing illustrates that members understand the importance of speaking up and sharing their stories.

Earlier this week, Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office informed LeadingAge that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will tell states with cost-based care center payment systems like Minnesota’s to treat Employee Retention Credit (ERC) funds like other federal CARES Act relief funds.

Each month, our national partner LeadingAge, shares workforce tools to help providers take action in their workforce efforts. This month’s focus was on recruitment tools to help you grow your teams to ensure a quality workforce both today and tomorrow.

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.

A bill introduced by US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Jon Tester (D-MT), along with Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Mike Rounds (R-SD) to add assisted living services to veterans benefits.

The Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Settings Rule became effective on March 17, 2014, with transition activities underway since that time. Due to covid delays, the date for full compliance is March 17.

Following two years of advocacy from LeadingAge, our national partner, on behalf of affordable senior housing communities, a raft of supportive services for older adults can now be more easily accessed and funded with the publication of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidance last month.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) released a revised long-term care (LTC) emergency preparedness toolkit on Monday.  At the height of the pandemic, this toolkit was used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as an example highlighting the collaborative work between providers, regulators, emergency preparedness experts, etc. to better prepare all long-term care settings for potential emergencies.

Minnesota’s updated state economic forecast was released Monday, and Minnesota’s budget and economic outlook remain historically strong, with a $17.5 billion balance projected for the next biennium. The Minnesota Legislature will use this forecast to determine how much money each budget area, including health and human services, will be allowed to spend.

Several policies must be given to the assisted living with dementia care resident or their representatives according to Minnesota Statutes. Recent surveys have uncovered inconsistent application of this requirement.

After a blizzard-induced postponement, the Senate Human Services Committee took up three long-term care bills championed by LeadingAge Minnesota and its Long-Term Care Imperative partner on Monday afternoon.  The three bills represent the breadth of aging services and the need to ensure they are available for seniors in all the places they call home. All three bills were laid over for inclusion in the committee’s omnibus bill, which will be assembled and passed later this session.

LeadingAge Minnesota has launched a new series: Caregiver Conversations. We’re helping lawmakers and their constituents have critical conversations about the aging services sector. Then we’re we are sharing the recordings far and wide so Minnesotans and leaders at the Capitol better understand the issues we are facing.

Don’t miss three days of all-new sessions on topics important to you. Join us from Feb. 28 - March 2 for Virtual Institute. The three general session keynotes will also be available for on-demand viewing. All live virtual sessions will be recorded and available for viewing through April 30.

Erin Shvetzoff Hennessey, CEO of HDG and LeadingAge Minnesota Board Member, was included in Modern Healthcare’s Top Women Leaders of 2023 list. This award honors female executives from all sectors of the healthcare system who are developing policy, leading change, and guiding healthcare delivery improvement across the country.

Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) held its routine National Nursing Home Stakeholder Call. During this call, CMS staff reiterated several vital facts about the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE).

With our partner in the Long-Term Care Imperative, we recently completed two surveys that look at the operating conditions faced by providers: a workforce survey and a care center occupancy survey. The surveys confirmed that staffing challenges continue to impact access to services for seniors throughout the state.

New and emerging nurse leaders in skilled nursing care centers, assisted living, or home care settings will gain a solid understanding of the foundational elements that make up the nurse leader’s role by attending LeadingAge Minnesota’s Nurse Leadership Certificate Program.