The Texas Nursing Home Quality Act (SB 1050 and HB 3342) would make Texas a leader in quality-based payments in nursing home care. The pending legislation is designed to bring federal tax dollars back to Texas while providing incentive based additional funding to nursing home facilities. The program differs from the programs in operation in other states by tying the additional funding to nursing home innovation and improvements, and does so without adding to the state budget.
The legislation, now pending in committee, is designed to address the underfunding issue that currently impacts nursing homes in Texas. The Texas Health Care Association calculates the average loss to nursing homes at $27 per day for each resident receiving Medicaid benefits. With this growing gap between what is paid and what should be paid for a resident’s vital care, short falls have placed an estimated 25% of Texas nursing homes at risk of sale or closure, created high staff turnover rates, and impacted the quality of care for seniors.
Passage of the Texas Nursing Home Quality Act is supported by industry insiders as a way to address this funding crisis by creating and operating a health care provider participation program. Under the program, Medicaid reimbursement rates would increase and additional compensation would be available to long-term care providers who meet quality requirements and nationally recognized performance standards. The current legislation provides financial incentives for participation by increased reimbursement rates and additional funding based upon demonstrated historical expenditures for capital improvements, renovations, and other enhancements designed to create a more home-like environment, increase staff wages and benefits, and improve other direct care services. The legislation provides incentives for meeting performance standards under a five-star quality rating system, increasing direct care staffing and for programming to address unique, long-term care needs.
The text of the proposed Nursing Home Quality Act (SB 1050 and HB 3342) is available at: https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB1050/id/1928132
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/html/HB03342I.htm
Status of the pending legislation can be followed at:
https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB1050/2019
https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/HB3342/2019
This post was written by Attorney Rebecca Hall.
Reference materials:
Texas Health Care Association, “86th Legislative Agenda: Solve the Nursing Home Medicaid Funding Shortfall To Enhance Quality Care,” https://txhca.org/legislative-priorities
Texas Health Care Association, “Texas Nursing Homes Are In Trouble And This Is One Crisis We Can Avoid,” https://txhca.org/senior-care-crisis
Warren, Kevin (April 28, 2019), “It’s more personal than you know,” https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/It-s-more-personal-than-you-know-13796393.php
Texas Health Care Association (February 26, 2019), “Legislation Returns Federal Dollars To Texas, Links Payments to Improving Care.” https://www.prweb.com/releases/thca_sen_hughes_says_sb_1050_is_game_changer_for_quality_of_care_in_texas_nursing_homes_without_costing_the_state/prweb16129879.htm
