Senior living organizations are calling Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s biennial budget proposal “a slap in the face” to the state’s older adults and those who care for them.
Last week, the Democrat released his 2025 biennial budget, saying it aims to address a looming deficit. Senior living and care organizations in the state said that efforts to address that deficit “balances the state budget on the backs of seniors and those who care for them,” according to a website post from LeadingAge Minnesota, the state partner of the national LeadingAge organization as well as for Argentum.
The Long-Term Care Imperative, a collaboration between the state’s two largest senior living and care provider associations — Care Providers of Minnesota and LeadingAge Minnesota — called out a proposal that would add “thousands of dollars per year” in new fees to the state’s assisted living communities.
Toby Pearson, president and CEO of Care Providers of Minnesota, told McKnight’s Senior Living that the budget recommendation includes increasing assisted living licensure fees by $50 per resident. The average 100-resident community, Person said, would see an increase in fees of $5,000.
“The implications are on affordability for residents,” Pearson said. “You’re going to have to find a way to pay that. Typically, that means the resident is going to have to pay all or some of that.”
He added that Care Providers of Minnesota, the state affiliate of the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living, opposes the recommendations in the budget and will be “telling our story to legislators to try to encourage them to not take the deficit out on the most vulnerable amongst us.”
LeadingAge Minnesota said the governor’s proposal to raise fees on assisted living providers by 54% doesn’t take into account that those facilities are not reimbursed for those fees. A spokesman told McKnight’s Senior Living that the fees would amount to an increase for residents, deepening an “affordability crisis” for individuals and families who want access to assisted living services.
In addition, the proposed budget recommends slowing the projected growth in services for people with disabilities and older adults. Specifically, the proposal would cap automatic year-over-year growth rates in Medicaid waivers. The cap, along with other state spending reductions, would save the state an estimated $1.3 billion over the next four years, according to Walz.
Pearson said many assisted living communities in the North State State serve some level of individuals on Community Access for Disability Inclusion, or CADI, waivers, and such providers and residents would be affected by the rate caps. CADI waivers provide funding for home- and community-based services for individuals who otherwise would require nursing facility care.
“Today’s proposal is nothing short of a slap in the face to Minnesota’s seniors, who are already facing a crisis in diminished access — particularly in rural Minnesota,” the LTC Imperative said in a statement. “This budget leads us to conclude that the governor does not consider Minnesota’s seniors a priority.”
The LTC Imperative said that 77% of Minnesotans agree that the state is not ready for the aging boom and that the proposed budget reinforces that belief.
“This is a disappointing step backward for our seniors and their caregivers,” the group stated. “It is time for Gov. Walz to sound the alarm on the crisis in long-term care, admit the state’s shortcomings and include additional funding support in his administration’s biennial budget.”
The group further called on lawmakers to prioritize and protect state programs that provide financial assistance to older adults seeking long-term care.
The rate caps do not affect the Elderly Waiver, which provides HCBS for older adults who need a nursing home level of care but choose to live in the community, including assisted living communities.
Source: McKnights Seniorliving
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