Health and Human Services Committee endorses Sen. Grohoski effort to address staffing crisis in Maine’s nursing homes
AUGUSTA — On Thursday, March 12, the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee gave unanimous, bipartisan support to a bill from Sen. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, that seeks to stabilize and strengthen the long-term care sector in Maine. Newly titled, LD 2131, “Resolve, Directing the Department of Health and Human Services to Amend Specific Portions of the Nursing Facility Principles of Reimbursement and to Timely Release Quality Payments,” seeks to ensure that funds already appropriated by the Legislature — the Nursing Facility Transition Fund — are used to support a local, high-quality, direct-care workforce.
“The amended bill supports my main goal — preventing future nursing home closures. It removes restrictions that prevented many direct-care workers from getting their full cost-of-living adjustments, which are critical for keeping nursing homes open and fully staffed,” said Sen. Grohoski. “Additionally, the Transition Fund will receive more oversight and public input, ensuring the dollars are well spent on stabilizing our long-term care sector. We must move beyond just preventing closures and build a system where it is viable for new facilities to open and meet the growing demand for care across our state.”
When introducing the bill, Sen. Grohoski sought to achieve the following:
- Ensure that all nursing homes benefit from the 1% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) already authorized by the Legislature.
- Partially reinstate the add-on to the direct care rate at $6 per MaineCare resident per day.
- Release $8.1 million in earned quality bonus payments from the Nursing Facility Transition Fund by March 1, 2026.
During LD 2131’s work session, Sen. Grohoski and the Health and Human Services Committee made several changes to the bill. LD 2131 now requires the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to correct its Benefits Manual so that previous and future COLAs authorized by the Legislature benefit all Maine nursing homes. Under the current manual, the recent 1% COLA did not go to half of nursing homes in the state.
The Senator and the Committee removed the proposed add-on direct-care rate provision of the bill. Instead, the Senator proposed a working group — comprising DHHS, direct care providers, the Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program and the Maine Health Care Association — that would examine how the Nursing Facility Transition Fund is being used to prevent nursing home closures.
Finally, the quality bonus payments were removed from the bill, due to the release of these funds to nursing homes last week.
Since 2014, 29 nursing facilities have closed across the state. The 131st Legislature established the Nursing Facility Transition Fund to help facilities transition to a new MaineCare rate model, including retaining facility staff and reducing the use of contract (or “travel”) staff. The new rates went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
In the coming weeks, LD 2131 will face votes in the Senate and House.
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