New Bed Tax Means a Rate Increase, New Budget Deal Could Mean a Rate Cut
Good news first: before leaving town the legislature passed SB 457, the bill renewing the nursing home provider assessment and increasing it to $4,908/bed or $818/bed for the 1/6th tier homes. The bill, now known as Senate Substitute for House Bill 2365, passed by healthy margins in both chambers. View Senate votes and House votes to see where your legislator landed. The bill now heads to the Governor for signature or veto.
The bad news: before leaving town the legislature passed an unbalanced budget. The budget deal they reached sweeps money from KDOT, delays payment to the state pension fund, and could force the Governor to make more than $80 million in cuts to state agency programs.Cuts to KanCare provider rates is a possibility.
We Need You
We did a great job passing the provider tax. Now we have to let Governor Brownback know how important it is for him to sign the provider tax bill and to allow nursing homes to keep all of the rate increases that result from it.
You will be receiving legislative alerts soon, asking you to contact Governor Brownback in order to save nursing home rates. Please send a message! And please forward the request on to your employees, boards, residents and families.
The Governor has 10 days to sign the provider tax bill. We do not yet know when the Governor will announce his budget cutting decision, but it could be soon.
We have to make our voices heard now to stress the importance of funding for nursing homes and the extremely vulnerable population for which they care.
Friday the 13th
Next Friday’s Legislative Update will contain the final report on all bills we have been tracking this session. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any questions. Send an email to rachel@leadingagekansas.org or call toll-free (800) 264-5242.
