What's happening
Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.
Why it matters
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Sponsors
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Recommit, enacting clause stricken
- Referred to health
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to payments for residential health care facilities in Erie county and Niagara county
Purpose
To ensure the provision of long term care services for frail and impoverished elderly patients, and to prevent future closures of nursing homes.
Summary of provisions
Section 1: This legislation will create a special Medicaid reimbursement rate 40% higher than what is called for in previous regulations. The rate will apply to facilities that meet five of the six criteria: 80% or more Medicaid payor mix, hospital affiliation, not-for profit status, the creation or retention of at least 120 jobs at the facility, location in a metropolitan statistical area where more than 15.5% of the population is over the age 65, and location in either Erie or Niagara Counties.
Section II: effective date.
Justification
Western New York is at a disadvantage because the rate at which Medicaid reimburses nursing homes has been significantly below the cost to provide care. In many cases, the reimbursement has been $35 to $50 below cost, per Medicaid patient, per day, resulting in losses that have exceeded $1,000,000 a year for some nursing homes. This has caused a situation where the nursing homes that have high percentages of patients on Medicaid are being forced to shut down and lay off workers. Most of the workers who are laid off are minorities.
In the past several years, eight nursing homes have closed in western New York. In the City of Buffalo, three facilities have closed in the past 24 months, resulting in the loss of over 700 jobs. A fourth nursing home in Buffalo recently received approval for closure, and several more are on the brink of bankruptcy. In this urban area, where there were once 14 nursing homes, there has been a 36% drop in the number of facilities, a figure that will increase if no action is taken to address the problem. As such, this legislation is necessary to avoid significant loss of jobs and closure of facilities where the percentage of residents on Medicaid is very high, and where rates of poverty are substantially higher than the statewide average.
Legislative history
None.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.