Governor’s Budget - rate adjustments for aging grant programs - The Governor’s budget includes a 2 percent upward rate adjustment for nursing facilities, Elderly Waiver (EW), Alternative Care and the state share of aging grant programs administered by the Continuing Care Administration.

Assisted Living Related Actions - Four elements include: 1) Requirement for each care plan for an EW participant living in assisted living (AL) to include an assessment of the personal supervision needed by that person. 2) Increased education by LTC consultants about home-based supports available for EW participants considering moving into AL. 3) Funding for a study of private-pay AL with ongoing information derived from the study and the results of the AL Uniform Consumer Information Guide being developed by Minnesota Department of Health. This information is to be provided on a website within MinnesotaHelp.info.

SF196 (Berglin) - Reverse Mortgage Incentive Program - Provides housing and public service program incentives when a reverse mortgage is used to support an eligible person’s ability to remain in their own home en lieu of nursing facility care.

HF46 (Thao) - State government contracts for language translation services - Agencies entering into translation contracts must give preference to awarding to a native speaker of the language being translated.

HF182 (Murphy) - Health insurance conversion coverage at age 60-65 - Limits the premium rate paid by persons aged 60-65 purchasing healthcare coverage privately to 90 percent of the cost of comparable coverage under MCHA.

HF183 (Murphy) - Medicare Part D eligibles - Creates a safety net for dual eligibles enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan by covering copayments in excess of $12 per month, covering any prescription drug not covered by the Part D plan (after a Board on Aging review), and covering all medical assistance-covered prescription drugs for beneficiaries awaiting the effective date of their Part D plan enrollment.

HF207 (Peppin) - Criminal neglect of vulnerable adults - Creates stronger penalties for criminal neglect of a vulnerable adult.

HF219 (Walker) - Employee personal sick leave - Expands use of personal sick leave to care for spouse, parent, sibling, grandparent and step parent.

HF259 (Mullery) - Grandparent visitation rights - Expands visitation rights for grandparents when the court deems it would be in the best interest of the child; specifies mediation when not mutually agreed.

HF297 (Huntley), SF2 (Berglin) - Health care expenditure limits - This is a broad-reaching health care bill (43 pages) that includes coverage for all copays for dual eligibles and the creation of a prescription drug discount program, which would allow Medicare beneficiaries to participate to the extent they have drugs not covered by their Part D plan, plus when they are responsible for 100 percent of the cost (the” donut hole”).

HF313 (Fritz) - Family home care tax credit - Establishes a home care tax credit of up to $2,400 per year for certain families that meet a defined “caregiver burden” score. Requires a visit by a LTC consultant to establish eligibility.

HF444 (Johnson, S), SF314 (Moua) - Senior nutrition trograms and grants - Restores senior nutrition funding of $822,000 to the base; provides senior nutrition grants to serve certain populations; $200,000 added to base for each following year.

SF569 (Pappas) - Senior citizens higher education program modifications - Removes professional continuing education programs from tuition-free courses that seniors can take at the University of Minnesota and the MSCU system institutions.

Nursing facility-related bills - Many bills have been introduced related to payment rates at certain nursing facilities.

Other nursing facility bills

HF55 (Sviggum), SF139, (Murphy) - Nursing facility payment changes - Allows all nursing facilities in the state to have their operating rate adjusted to the median operating rate of the facilities in geographic group 3 (Metro area). If they are above the median, they do not take a rate decrease.

HF399 (Rukavina) Long Term Care Patient Access to Pharmaceuticals Act

HF400 (Hosch) - Nursing facility rate and policy - Increases rates, extends enhanced rates, establishes new case mix indices and other actions.

HF401 (Thissen) - Nursing facility bed moratorium process changes - Adds criteria for moratorium exception process, raises cost per new bed limit, authorizes funding of moratorium process and other actions.

HF518 (Seifert) - Nursing facility surcharge levels - Licensed nursing home beds surcharge reduced.