Unified! First Texas Nursing Home Coalition Conference Takes Off

A long time coming is today in Texas as the inaugural conference of the Texas Nursing Home Coalition kicked off Sept. 23 in Dallas to a packed ballroom full of the providers who represent a new way of doing business in the long-term care sector in the Longhorn State.

Ed Parades, executive director of the Coalition, led off the festivities, noting for the first time in the state’s history there is unity among providers with the new group representing 85 percent of the for-profit skilled centers in Texas.

In recounting a recent interview with Park Place CEO Mark Parkinson and his question of “How did you do it,” Parades told the audience today’s success took roughly a decade or more and was built on recognizing the need to unify in order to succeed in getting more reimbursement for skilled nursing providers and clear up a rough regulatory environment.

Long a Medicaid reimbursement black hole, a version of today’s Coalition has been able to win meaningful base rate increases in the past two legislative sessions, Parades noted. That success led to the most recent push by the group to remedy the Immediate Jeopardy (IJ) problem tied to the regulatory regime in the state.

“We had a significant problem,” he said with the state issuing 1,000 IJs in 2025, way above the national average. They got to work. Calling on the governor and other state leaders, the advocacy efforts resulted in a 62 percent drop in IJs in fiscal year 2026.

How did the success happen? Parades said the unified actions of providers to get wins from their encounters with state policymakers proved the point that when providers work together, good things can happen.

Porter Praises Texas

After Parades spoke came Clif Porter, the president and CEO of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), who lauded praise on the Coalition’s efforts and its new status as the Texas affiliate of AHCA/NCAL.

“I'm officially here to thank all of you and welcome you as members of the association,” he said, before listing the advocacy agenda AHCA/NCAL is promoting in Washington, DC, under its “Better Way” program.

Success, Porter said, has come in a number of areas of the Better Way effort, including beating back attempts to implement a staffing mandate, and having the feds agree to invest CMP funds into nurse training.

“This is a huge one,” Porter said, noting now there are some 9,000 skilled facilities in the country eligible to apply for nursing scholarships of $40,000. Instead of hiring more surveyors with the CMPs, not it directed to these scholarships, he said.

Porter also promoted the benefits of the new national Risk-Based Survey program, and how it is a sea change for CMS, which is the case of RBS is now incentivizing regulations to promote quality improvements among long-term care providers.

The Coalition’s conference runs through Sept. 25. See Texas Nursing Home Coalition - Texas Nursing Home Coalition | Long-Term Care Advocacy for more information.

Comments or questions? Contact Patrick Connole at pconnole@parkplacelive.com.