Sen. Nicole Grohoski introduces bill to prevent more closures of nursing home facilities in Maine
AUGUSTA — On Friday, March 28, Sen. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, introduced legislation to provide $50 million of one-time funding for nursing facilities to the Nursing Facility Reform Transition Fund. LD 763, “An Act to Improve Long-term Care by Providing Funding for Nursing Facilities,” was the subject of a public hearing before the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. It seeks to reverse the trend of nursing home closures in Maine. Sen. Grohoski represents part of Hancock County, which lost its final nursing home facility, Seaport Village in Ellsworth, in January 2024.
“Since 2014, we’ve lost 29 nursing homes in Maine – including every single nursing home in Hancock County,” said Sen. Grohoski. “Given the current funding situation that Maine’s nursing homes find themselves in, I am determined to appropriate the funding they desperately need. Without this stabilizing funding, we will likely see more closures, like the latest one – the Eagle Lake Nursing Home, which will close on April 30. Unless we act, more families will struggle to find care for their loved ones, and more seniors will be forced to leave the places they call home.”
Michael Tyler, who is originally from Hancock County and has spent over 40 years involved with long-term care facilities, offered testimony in favor of the bill. In addition to pointing out the $15 million reduction in funding for nursing homes built into the biennial budget, Michael identified other challenges. “The services provided by Maine’s nursing facilities are essential services – just [like] public safety [workers] and law enforcement [officers]. Our facilit[ies] can’t reduce the hours of service or the days [they] are open…We can’t compete if we have no ability to give staff raises or fund the ever-increasing costs of food, operating costs and utilities.”
At the public hearing, Sen. Grohoski also introduce a sponsor’s amendment to reduce the funding amount from $50 million $35.1 million, which is enough to provide an inflation adjustment ($25.1 million) and make the rate model whole for the first year of the budget ($10 million).
This amendment would add language that directs any nursing home funding appropriated in the MaineCare budget that is not fully expended to go to the Nursing Facility Reform Transition Fund. Based on the proposed amendment, the Fund would be non-lapsing and would not expire. Finally, it would ensure that this transfer protocol stays in place until further action by the Legislature. The Nursing Facility Reform Transition Fund was created to support the three-year transition from the previous reimbursement rate structure to the new one that started on January 1, 2025.
LD 763 faces further action in the Committee.
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