SUPPORTERS FLOOD CAPITOL WITH FUNDING MESSAGE
Texans have sent more than 13,000 e-mails messages to legislators urging them to support funding nursing homes through Senate Bill 1050.
Every House member and every Senator have been contacted by constituents on the legislation. No House office has received less than eight messages while every Senate office has received at least 72 messages. More than 450 e-mails have been sent to the Lieutenant Governor.
The bill, authored by Senator Bryan Hughes, has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance and is awaiting a hearing date.
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In addition, members continue to come to the Capitol to visit their legislators. Each week, groups of providers have taken their materials and spread throughout the Capitol to educate legislators and their staff on the need to fund Medicaid for long term care and the solution presented by SB 1050, which requires no appropriation from the state budget. More groups are scheduled to make visits in the month of April.
THCA AGENDA ITEMS HEARD IN COMMITTEE
The House Human Services Committee took up two bills in March that were part of the THCA Legislative Agenda.
The first, HB 2205 by Rep. Travis Clardy, would require a surveyor who identifies an immediate jeopardy violation to remain in the facility cited until a plan of removal is approved. It will also require an IDR request for a standard of care violation be reviewed by a registered nurse with long term care experience and that surveyors be available for questioning about their determinations in the IDR process.
“This process is intended to resolve differences between the regulatory agency (HHSC) and long term care providers,” Rep. Clardy told the committee. “But it works nothing like it is intended to do. This bill attempts to make the process work better.”
The second is House Bill 2221 by Rep. Richard Pena Raymond. It would require HHSC to consolidate to one portal for providers dealing with Medicaid Managed Care. HHSC could contract with a private entity to develop the portal.
THCA members Danny King (StoneGate Senior Living), Lisa Doehrman (Regency Integrated Health Services), and Eddie Reardon (Southwest LTC) testified that the inefficiency of multiple systems has led to providers have consistently increasing staffing in order to manage billing systems and chase down claims issue resolution. This will be even worse, they told the committee, if HHSC carries through with its plans to add more MCOs—with their own systems—next year.
No one testified against either of the bills and it is hoped they will be voted out of the committee in the next couple of weeks.