{"id":37038,"date":"2025-01-23T15:40:23","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T21:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37038"},"modified":"2025-01-24T09:53:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T15:53:44","slug":"medicaid-memory-care-waiver-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37038","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid memory care waiver considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Jan. 22 on a bill that seeks to establish a Medicaid reimbursement rate for assisted living facilities that provide memory care services.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sen. Tanya Storer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB61, introduced by Whitman Sen. Tanya Storer, would require the state Department of Health and Human Services to apply to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services no later than Sept. 30, 2025, for a waiver amendment to include reimbursement rates for assisted living memory care.<\/p>\n

The bill also states intent to appropriate an undetermined amount from the General Fund for fiscal year 2025-26 and FY2026-27 for the payment of memory care rates.<\/p>\n

Storer said the current reimbursement structure \u2014 which provides an umbrella reimbursement rate for assisted living facilities regardless of the level of care provided \u2014 does not adequately account for the additional support, training and staffing that memory care facilities require.<\/p>\n

She also noted the growing number of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

According to the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, she said, over 35,000 Nebraskans age 65 and older currently are living with Alzheimer\u2019s, a number that is projected to increase by 21% this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is undeniable that we are going to have a significant increase in need in our state,\u201d Storer said. \u201cIgnoring that reality is not going to make it go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiersten Reed, speaking in support of the bill on behalf of LeadingAge Nebraska, said the costs associated with specialized care for dementia disorders \u2014 which is the most expensive to provide \u2014 has caused many providers to close.<\/p>\n

The number of Nebraskans experiencing dementia has steadily increased while the number of assisted living facilities that accept Medicaid and provide memory care services has dropped significantly, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current reimbursement rate and the current system that we have is not set up to manage that kind of influx,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe just simply don\u2019t have the capacity with 44 providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heath Boddy, testifying on behalf of Vetter Senior Living, said lawmakers need to take swift action to ensure access to care for vulnerable Nebraskans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say with certainty that access to care, specifically assisted living memory care, in rural Nebraska for those that rely on state assistance is already an issue,\u201d Boddy said. \u201cMy assessment is that this is only going to get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB61 and the committee took no immediate action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony Jan. 22 on a bill that seeks to establish a Medicaid reimbursement rate for assisted living facilities that provide memory care services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[311],"class_list":["post-37038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-tanya-storer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LB61Storer1-22-25a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37038"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37107,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37038\/revisions\/37107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}