Nursing home funding question headed for the ballot

Photo/SHNS Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker

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By Thomas Grillo

An effort waged by a Massachusetts coalition of nursing homes and residents to secure funding for the more than 30,000 patients appears to be headed for next year’s ballot with more than enough certified signatures filed with the Secretary of State’s office this week.

If approved by voters in November, the initiative would compel the Legislature to maintain MassHealth funding to within two years of the actual cost of providing healthcare services to the state’s nursing homes for Medicaid-eligible residents.

State funding has chronically fallen behind the cost of nursing home care and has led to the closing of nearly three dozen nursing homes in the past two years with more closings expected, according to the proponent group Massachusetts Senior Coalition.

The Gov. Charlie Baker Administration and the Legislature have acknowledged the crisis facing nursing homes. The 2020 budget approved an additional $50 million in MassHealth funding. Despite that increase, the gap between the cost of care and the reimbursement for that cost remains at about $350 million leaving more nursing homes vulnerable to closing and unable to adequately pay direct-care staff, said Massachusetts Senior Coalition.

“We are asking the state to reimburse us for the costs for a Medicaid nursing home patient,” said Frank Romano, president of Essex Group Management, which operates several nursing homes in Massachusetts, including two in Worcester.

“The industry is looking for a solution, we hope that the Baker administration and our coalition will sit down to figure out a solution so the ballot question will not be needed. we want a reasonable plan together that benefits everyone.”

One solution nursing homes have not explored is simply stop taking MassHealth-eligible nursing patients until the finance problem is resolved.

“That would be a very risky position to take because God forbid if one of those patients passed away,” Romano said. “I have run a family business for 40 years, and we look at things other than just money. If a doctor calls to say they have an 85-year-old patient who needs to leave the hospital, what am I supposed to say, no?”

Executive Office of Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders was unavailable for comment.

In a statement she said her department "continues to work with legislators, the industry, unions and other stakeholders to ensure the long-term viability and quality of nursing homes." The statement did not say where she stood on the ballot question.

With a deadline set for Wednesday to submit all final signatures, the coalition has exceeded the 80,239 signatures required to qualify for the ballot with 87,000 officially filed with the Secretary of State last week. The coalition says the total number of certified signatures to be turned into the Secretary of State’s office will reach 95,000 or more.