Amendment #48 to H4617

Nursing Home Care

Ms. Garlick of Needham moves to amend the bill in section 46 by adding the following subsections:

(l) The secretary shall expend not less than $15,000,000 annually to long term care facilities licensed under Section 71 of Chapter 111 of MGL based on financial need. All expenditures shall have 1 or more of the following purposes: (1) to ensure the financial stability of the nursing homes in the commonwealth in order to provide quality nursing home resident care and quality jobs; (2) to promote long term care facility workforce engagement, recruitment, training, retention and to help ensure that direct care and frontline staff have an opportunity to and can sustainably support themselves and their families; and (3) to support infrastructure investments necessary for the transition to alternative payment methodologies, including technology investments in data analysis functions and electronic medical records.

(m) The secretary may require as a condition of receiving payment from the fund that an eligible long term care facility agree to an independent financial and operational audit to recommend steps to increase the sustainability and efficiency of the facility.

(n) The executive office of health and human services shall promulgate regulations necessary to carry out this section.

(o) Not later than 30 days after payments are allocated to eligible licensed long term care under this section, the secretary for health and human services shall file a report with the joint committee on health care finance and the house and senate committees on ways and means detailing the allocation and recipient of each payment.