Another one of the “hidden” provisions of the omnibus health and human services budget bill that passed in the dark of night during the special session was a removal of any sort of state subsidy for undocumented immigrants receiving long-term care services. The Association has been involved in discussions with Department of Human Services (DHS) staff about this provision and its implications. The language at issue is: Sec. 27 of Chapter 9, which limits the services that are necessary for the treatment of an emergency medical condition for nonimmigrants. Section (h)(2) specifically lists the services that are not included in the treatment of an emergency medical condition, and it includes “continuing care, including long-term care, nursing facility services, home health care, adult day care, day training, or supportive living services.” The effective date of this section is January 1, 2012.

What does this mean? It means that about 50 current nursing facility residents whose care is covered by the emergency medical assistance (MA) program will receive NO state funding on January 1, 2012, and there will be no availability of any sort of government payment for their stay. In other words, they become private-pay residents on January 1, 2012. Staff at DHS, including the ombudsman office, have been meeting to review this provision, and to brainstorm about whether there are any options for these residents, who have significant care needs and no financial resources. We believe that about 20 of these residents are under age 50, with varying complex medical conditions, including ventilator care. We know that current law will not allow nursing facilities to discharge for non-payment until there is no payment, which means sometime after the January bill goes unpaid. We also know that there will be limited locations to discharge these residents to outside of emergency rooms of local hospitals.

With this in mind, we need your assistance. We need to be able to briefly describe the care needs of these undocumented “non-immigrants” and the expense to nursing facilities to care for these individuals without compensation. We plan to discuss our concerns with key legislators and agency officials, but we need a more complete picture of the individuals whose lives will be at risk on January 1, 2012. Send your descriptions and cost estimates (no names please) to Todd Bergstrom at tbergstrom@careproviders.org.

Patti Cullen, CAE
952.851.2487
pcullen@careproviders.org

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