The Facts
LD 797, a new bill that the Maine Legislature is considering, will cost Maine $30-$40 million dollars to implement, with no additional funding being provided by the legislature.
We estimate that residential care facilities will need an additional 600 plus full time caregivers to meet these new requirements. There simply are not enough workers to fill these roles.
There have been over 50 nursing home and residential care facility closures or conversions to lower levels of care in Maine since 2014. Specifically, there have been 29 nursing home closures, with 16 since 2021 alone.
If Maine passes the unrealistic staffing ratios demanded in these proposed new rules, more long term care facilities will be forced to restrict admissions, or worse, close their doors.
28 residential care facilities have closed since 2014.
This escalating rate of closures is happening because of low reimbursement rates coupled with record inflation levels and exploding labor costs due to too few qualified direct care workers. The only solution to this problem is to increase MaineCare reimbursement rates to meet today’s price of providing care to our loved ones.
The use of agency labor has grown over $100 million from $49.6 million in 2019 to $149.9 million in 2022, and the trajectory for 2023 and 2024 shows no slowing down.
Legislation was passed to collect data on temporary nurse agency staffing costs (LD 451); however, this is only the first step, and additional measures will be needed to address these exploding costs.
The chronic underfunding and lack of staff are crippling Maine’s ability to provide long term care services to our aging population.
Simply put, our nursing homes and residential care facilities cannot sustain the significant funding shortfalls it faces. The nursing home sector shortfall for 2022 was $96.5 million. The residential care/ assisted living shortfall in 2022 was $24.3 million. With significant federal match (.66 on every $1.00 for nursing homes) the state can leverage other resources to help address this shortfall.
Maine is the oldest state in the nation, with a significant baby boomer population that will need access to long term care. In fact, nearly 70% of older adults are likely going to need long term care services at some point during their lives.
The declining access to long term care is deeply concerning. In fact, Hancock County has no nursing homes left. Other parts of Maine are soon to follow.
These closures cause emotional distress to residents and their families and, in many cases, significantly extend travel times.
Closures also impact the whole healthcare system as many Mainers are stuck in hospitals waiting months for a long term care placement.
