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Legislative update: Bills aims to keep veterans' homes solvent, older Mainers in their homes
Maine Veterans' Homes, a nonprofit healthcare provider offering residential care for veterans and their spouses, could be insolvent in two years unless lawmakers approve more than $4 million in funding, said CEO Brad Klawitter at a hearing on April 1.
Rep. Laura Supica, who sponsored the bill, L.D. 182, said the requested state funding of about $4.26 million would draw a federal match of $6.97 million, for a total of about $11.2 million. The legislation would establish reimbursement rates for Maine Veterans’ Homes under MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, on a per resident daily basis, creating baseline annual funding for the homes, which state officials said would set them apart from what other nursing homes receive.
Maine Veterans’ Homes was established in 1983 and now has locations in Augusta, Caribou, Scarborough, South Paris, Bangor and Machias. MVH is separate from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but works closely with the department to access federal funds. As a result, the homes are held to higher occupancy and care standards, including higher staff ratios, and the state passed a law in 2022 requiring all six veterans homes to stay open, in response to the threatened closures of homes in Machias and Caribou.
Michelle Probert, director of the Office of MaineCare Services, testified against the bill, saying the state just finished a substantial overhaul of the nursing home reimbursement rate methodology and did not receive any public comments that Maine Veterans’ Home facilities should receive different rates than other nursing facilities. In addition, said Probert, this approach to setting reimbursement methodology conflicts with the law requiring a statutory and systematic approach.
Probert added that the measure would create reimbursement amounts that would differ from the new rate system implemented in January, and “would move MaineCare back toward an inequitable system of reimbursements, one that the Department and Legislature has worked hard to address in the last several years.”
The fiscal note estimated the bill would require about $6.75 million in general funds in 2025-26 and $6.77 million in 2026-27, but Supica said MVH believes her estimated numbers are more accurate.
Klawitter said the homes run about an $8.5 million deficit annually. If proposed cuts to Medicaid are enacted by Congress, said Klawitter, MVH would require an additional $6 million from the state to stay operating. Medicaid covers two-thirds of nursing home stays in the state.
Rep. Michael Lemelin, a Republican who sits on the Health and Human Services committee, said he wasn’t worried about potential federal cuts to Medicaid. “I'm worried about the state of Maine and getting it through our appropriation,” he said. “The federal government will come through.”
Rep. Michele Meyer, a Democrat who is the chair of the Health and Human Services committee, responded that she’s “far more concerned” about potential federal cuts. “You're pulling down money from the feds for every dollar that's spent here in the state and that in totality is what you need to remain solvent and keep your home's open,” she said.
The Health and Human Services committee next will hold a work session to discuss whether to support sending the bill to the full Legislature.
Older Mainers Act
Without Meals on Wheels, 90-year-old Hank Dumont said he would not have been able to stay in his home in Harrison year-round.
Dumont, a widower of 25 years, said he lives by himself and can’t leave home when the weather is bad. Through his local Area Agency on Aging, Dumont said he is able to get meals delivered and talk to a volunteer once a week through a phone pal program.
“If folks like me aren’t able to get these meals, I bet a lot of them end up in the hospital and probably even nursing homes because they are not able to eat well enough to stay healthy,” Dumont said in his testimony, which his daughter read to the Health and Human Services committee on his behalf.
Dumont was testifying in support of L.D. 814, a bill that would provide $9.75 million in annual funding to Maine’s five area agencies on aging to eliminate the statewide waitlist for Meals on Wheels, expand case management services for older Mainers, increase access to Medicare support and extend referral services.
The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Marianne Moore and Democrat Rep. Kristen Cloutier, comes at a time when the federal government has dissolved the Administration for Community Living, which administered Meals on Wheels programs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the programs under the ACL would be integrated into other agencies, but NPR reported that 40 percent of the staff have been laid off.
During a public hearing on the Maine bill, numerous people testified in support of the services area agencies on aging provide and the huge demand for their services, including a waitlist for Meals on Wheels of about 750 older Mainers statewide. Others testified that providing counseling on health insurance plans has saved some Mainers thousands of dollars on medications.
Sen. Moore, who volunteers for Meals on Wheels, testified that these services are also important as a wellness check for vulnerable people who live alone. When one of her clients didn’t answer the door, Moore said she made several additional attempts to deliver the meals throughout the day until finally notifying the meals coordinator who called the client’s emergency contact information. They found out the woman had fallen and couldn’t get up. “We were unsure how long she had been lying there.”
After the Health and Human Services voted in support of the bill, Sen. Henry Ingwersen, who chairs the committee, said he was impressed with the legislation.
“In the short time I’ve been here, it’s not often that you see bills come through where the return on the investment is so amazingly great,” he said. “I know it’s a lot of money, but if you look at what we’re getting for what we invest, it’s pretty incredible for older Mainers.”
The bill will now go before the full Legislature.'
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