The Oklahoma Health Care Authority Board (OHCA) approved a nearly $29 million increase in state Medicaid funding for regular nursing facilities during its Monday meeting. That appropriation will attract additional federal dollars to improve long-term care provider rates.
The board approved this financial bump after the 2024 legislature directed OHCA to appropriate $30 million to improve long-term care provider rates. Its vote will put over $100 million in state and federal funds toward providing direct care and other costs in nursing homes.
Seventy percent of this funding supports direct care, and 30% supports other costs. The direct care cost component is defined as the sum of the salaries and benefits for registered nurses, directors of nursing, licensed professional nurses, certified nurse aides, certified medication aides and therapy aides and assistants.
Mary Brinkley, a licensed nursing home administrator, said in the Thursday public comment section of the OHCA State Plan Amendment Rate Committee she supports this.
“In order to maintain quality nursing homes in Oklahoma, those that are staffing more need to be reimbursed to be rewarded for the money that they have expended,” Brinkley said.
Once the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalizes this rate increase, regular nursing facilities will see an average increase of $224.64 per resident, per day to $244.78. Here’s how that breaks down:
- Nursing home base rate component: An increase from $158.56 per resident, per day to $158.78. All nursing homes receive the same reimbursement under this component.
- Pay for performance component to incentivize meeting four quality-of-care measures: There is no increase, leaving the component at up to $5 per resident, per day based on whether facilities meet each measure.
- Other Cost Component: An increase from $18.32 per resident, per day to $24.30.
- Direct Care Cost Component: This component varies by facility based on its direct care expenditures. The average before the increase is $42.75 per resident, per day. The remainder of the new state and federal money will fall under this component.
Long-term care provider rates have seen an average increase of about $65 per resident, per day, in the past five years, with the average rate being $179.57 per resident, per day in FY2021.
This rate increase supports nursing homes amid new rules from the Biden administration meant to improve safety and quality of care in Medicare- and Medicaid-certified long-term care facilities.
Through the mandate, the administration aims to tackle the issue of chronic staffing shortages, which can impact the quality of care seniors receive. But the rule doesn’t come with funds to facilitate it, and Oklahoma nursing homes say it asks them to find staff they can’t afford and that doesn’t exist.
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