Today the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the HEROES act.  This act has many provisions that will benefit long-term care which are listed below.  We are asking members to contact their congressional members and urge them to pass this act.  With the house voting today, we are especially asking you to contact our senators and encourage them to consider these provisions.  LeadingAge National has set up an easy way for you to email your congressional members including our state Senators.  This platform has a prepopulated message, please feel free to edit this message as you see fit!

The link to email congress is here – TAKE ACTION TODAY

• The bill opens up the Payroll Protection Program to all 501(c) nonprofits.  Previously it was limited to only 501(c)(3) nonprofits. 
• The bill authorizes $500M to be appropriated to states to set up “strike teams” to assist nursing homes with residents or staff who have diagnosed or suspected cases of COVID-19, with clinical care, infection control, or staffing. While LeadingAge has not taken a position on strike teams, we strongly support providing additional support and assistance to nursing homes to address the never-ending need for staff and personal protective equipment.
• The bill creates an incentive program for 4- and 5-star nursing homes to create COVID specific units. This is similar to LeadingAge’s recommendation that COVID be considered a skilled need for payment purposes, and that Congress appropriate funds specifically for specialized settings. We certainly support this and other similar efforts.
• CMS is mandated to report, on Nursing Home Compare, demographic information on residents with suspected or confirmed cases of OVID-19, including age, race/ethnicity, and preferred language (taken from the data already provided by nursing homes). LeadingAge has supported collection of demographic data to better understand this new disease and its impact. While this provision requires reporting deaths, we also believe that it would be critical to report on recovery, which is equally important in understanding the trajectory of the disease and how to respond.
• CMS is mandated to contract with at least one Quality Improvement Organization to provide infection control support.
• CMS is required to issue guidance to nursing homes on how to provide access to visitation for residents, at least by phone. LeadingAge members are working diligently to provide virtual visitation and contact with family, which is critical for the health and wellbeing of our residents. We will be happy to share our experiences with CMS, but urge that Congress include funding for the additional technology needed to enhance and improve communications.
• The provider relief program gets a make-over, specifically mandating that funds be distributed by a grant program, setting up the way the program is to be implemented. We are reviewing carefully to see how this will affect our members.
• A variety of commissions and task forces are created to address the federal response to testing, equipment distribution, a cohesive and coherent plan for distributing funds authorized for COVID and the like.
• A “HEROES Fund” is created to provide premium support for essential workers, which would include nursing home, home health, social workers, and other identified workers. LeadingAge has strongly advocated for increased funds for frontline staff in all our communities and home-based settings.
• The Heroes Act would also strengthen the Medicaid program by further enhancing the federal share of Medicaid spending. Increasing the federal matching rate for Medicaid is a key tool the federal government can use to support Medicaid and state budgets and has been done in previous economic downturns, including the Great Recession.  The Families First legislation in March increased the federal Medicaid match for every state by 6.2 percentage points for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Heroes Act would increase the share further, from July 2020 through June 2021, by increasing the federal spending match a further 7.8 points- providing states a federal match a total of 14 percentage points higher than their typical share. A state with a 50% match before COVID-19, for example, would receive a match of 56.2% in May 2020 through Families First, and then in July receive a match of 64% through Families First and, if enacted, the Heroes Act.
• In addition to the general federal matching increase, the Heroes Act also provides a targeted, ten percentage point increase in the federal share of Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS). The increase would apply to waiver services, like adult day and assisted living, as well as home health, personal care and PACE. Increases like these go to states, not providers, so the increase does not automatically mean providers will see higher rates. The HCBS share increase, however, requires states to use the extra money for Medicaid HCBS specifically, meaning more resources would be available for these supports if the Heroes Act becomes law.
• The Heroes Act also would prevent the federal government from finalizing the proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation (MFAR) through the end of the COVID-19 national emergency. The proposed MFAR could have damaging effects on state budgets, as well as for aging services providers (i.e. proposed changes to the provider tax), so a block on this rule would help protect states and their Medicaid programs.
• Building on the CARES Act, which provided close to one billion dollars to the Older Americans Act (OAA) programs, the Heroes Act would send state agencies an additional $100 million for OAA. As part of this fund, $20 million each would be allocated for supportive services (including HCBS), nutrition programs and family caregiver support programs.

Questions?

Contact:

David Carter
Director Health Care Finance & Policy

LeadingAge Washington
c: 360.888.5702