News

LeadingAge Minnesota is pleased to share the release of our 2025 Annual Report—a reflection of a year defined by challenge, resilience, and meaningful progress for aging services across our state. Yes, we know…it’s April 2026. But as you’ll see, the work captured in this report is well worth the look back.

In a response to concerns about possible increases in eviction filings related to Operation Metro Surge, the St. Paul City Council recently approved a temporary 60-day pre-eviction filing notice ordinance on a unanimous 7-0 vote.

A couple weeks ago, Governor Walz released his supplemental budget proposal, which would make significant cuts to Minnesota’s long-term care system—putting seniors and their caregivers at serious risk during an already critical time.

We’re hearing from providers across Minnesota about a shared challenge: strong, committed nursing assistant (CNAs) learners who struggle—not because they can’t do the work, but because training materials don’t fully support how they learn. That’s why OnTrack has expanded support for multilingual learners in CNA programs.

Falls with Major Injury (FMI) has long been one of the most closely watched quality measures in long-term care. It directly affects public reporting, survey scrutiny, and Five-Star Quality Ratings. However, a major shift is underway in how this measure is calculated.

Each year, The Long-Term Care Imperative conducts a Workforce and Financial Conditions survey to gauge key metrics for the aging services sector.

Members have asked practical questions about how to respond if immigration enforcement activity occurs near their communities. LeadingAge Minnesota has expanded its guidance with new FAQs and an updated resource page, bringing all tools together in one place.

“Just because we are older, and live in an assisted living, doesn’t mean that we should have fewer freedoms than anyone else.”

On Tuesday, March 17, Governor Walz announced his supplemental budget recommendations. Despite the improved state budget forecast that came out a little over two weeks ago, the new budget proposal includes significant cuts to long-term care, in an effort to “control the growth of spending in those programs,” as the Governor continues to assert.

This week, legislation to exempt senior care settings from needing a liquor license for resident happy hours advanced in the Senate Commerce Committee.

The LeadingAge Minnesota QUEST Report for the third quarter, 2025 is now available, providing members with timely insights into trends shaping the senior care sector.

This week, the Senate Human Services Committee heard two bills that would adversely affect senior care services.

The Addressing “Med Not Available” Medication Errors Resource was developed by a work group of the LeadingAge Minnesota Quality Committee to support members in building systematic, effective processes to both prevent and respond to medications not being available to administer to residents.

Yesterday, CMS at the White House announced that they would be withholding $259 million in federal funds for Minnesota due to “unsupported or potentially fraudulent Medicaid claims.” The amount was based on a review of claims from the fourth quarter of 2025.

As we previewed in last week’s Capitol Conversations newsletter, we can expect lawmakers this year to focus on messaging bills, sharper partisan contrasts, and a heavy emphasis on positioning rather than policymaking. In an election year, some bills are intended to send a message to potential voters and constituents, rather than become law.

Legislators need to hear directly from long-term care providers and Day at the Capitol is your opportunity to make that happen.

On January 28, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued Quality, Safety, and Oversight memo QSO-26-01, revising the criteria used to select nursing homes for the Special Focus Facility (SFF) program. This update carries meaningful implications for all member facilities, and we want to make sure you understand what changed and what steps you should be taking now.

The 2025 Legislature created a new rate exception program under Elderly Waiver (EW) to help hospitals discharge high need residents to assisted living and other EW settings. The new program allows for rates that would otherwise exceed the EW budget caps.

On February 10, 2026, LeadingAge Minnesota proudly honored the very best of aging services at our annual Stars Among Us Awards Banquet. For more than 35 years, our Stars Among Us Awards have recognized the individuals and organizations whose leadership, compassion, innovation, and dedication elevate the lives of older adults across Minnesota.

On February 11, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit heard oral arguments in the matter of the legal action that LeadingAge Minnesota, along with our partner in the Long-Term Care Imperative (LTCI), filed in late 2024 challenging the Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board (NHWSB) and the Holiday Pay Rule.