Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Mark Parkinson back with Park Place and we're back with some good news. 00:05 We have Matt Pickering who's the Executive Director at HCCI. 00:10 You might remember from the Illinois segment that HCCI is the AHCA affiliate 00:15 that represents 61,000 beds in Illinois, massive association. 00:19 When we last talked with Matt, they were trying to get the legislature 00:24 to increase the 2027 SNF rates for Medicaid and it was a little bit up in 00:29 the air. 00:31 We're doing a follow up to see what happened. 00:32 And Matt, welcome back to Park Place and tell us 00:35 what happened in a session. 00:37 Thank you, Mark, happy to be back. 00:40 I feel a lot better now than the last time I talked to you. 00:43 Things did end up going well in Illinois. 00:46 We had a successful session. 00:49 We had a great team effort and as we've talked about internally just the the 00:55 greatest, I would say unprecedented legislative 00:59 support, really top to bottom support that we had 01:03 not seen before. 01:05 So it was, it was really good to see all that come 01:08 together and a relief to get the results that we needed. 01:13 So tell us about the result. 01:14 What, what were you able to get for providers? 01:17 Yes, our primary objective this session was a 01:20 Medicaid access adjustment that we have here in Illinois that was included in the 01:27 2022 reimbursement system change. 01:31 Medicaid access adjustment was actually supposed to sunset based on what had 01:37 happened in '22. 01:38 So our number one objective was to get that sunset either removed or extended. 01:44 We are will to extend it to December 2029, which gives us, you know, 01:50 plenty more room to make sure that things are stable down the road for our members. 01:57 And then also we really needed to increase that. 02:00 Medicaid facilities in Illinois have been in a really tough position. 02:05 And so for those high Medicaid facilities, we were really trying to dedicate funding 02:10 to where it was needed the most. 02:13 And we're able to more than double the Medicaid access adjustment. 02:17 It had been set at $4. 75 with facilities at at least 70% 02:23 Medicaid and we increased it to $10.30. 02:27 So more than double. 02:29 That's awesome. 02:29 And it's like, I think it's like $100 million to SNF 02:32 providers across the state. 02:34 Yeah, annualized it's about $100 million. 02:37 The other component of it that was a priority for us was for Medicaid 02:41 facilities outside of the Chicago metro area. 02:45 One of the things that everyone shared concern over work closures in the state 02:51 of Illinois, many of those downstate. 02:54 And so we were able to lower the threshold for for facilities outside of 02:59 Chicago to 65%, which will allow many facilities that are 03:03 really on the brink to keep their doors open. 03:07 So I'm just going to explain this at a high level because I think it's important 03:10 to the viewers because I think there's a lesson here for other States and how to 03:13 get increases. 03:14 This specific funding goes to nursing homes that have a high Medicaid 03:19 population. 03:20 If you're downstate and you have more than 65%, you get this bump. 03:24 If you're upstate and you have more than 70%, you get this bump. 03:28 And that's because in Illinois, very blue state, 03:31 legislators there care a lot about Medicaid recipients. 03:35 The reason I bring that point up is that what we see across the country is that 03:40 when people when when associations go in and just ask for a general rate increase 03:44 for Medicaid, legislators usually say, no. 03:47 They're like, we're not going to give these nursing 03:48 home owners a bunch of more money. 03:50 But when they go in like you did and focus on something that the legislators 03:55 care about in Illinois, it's Medicaid recipients. 03:58 In another state it might be quality and another state it might be behavioral and 04:02 another state it might be a staffing add on. 04:05 But the key is to figure out what your legislators care about and ask them to 04:08 fund that. 04:09 I mean, how do you think this would have gone if 04:11 you just would have asked for $100 million on the base, right? 04:15 I think that we may not have gotten the help that we needed. 04:20 I, I think it's just that simple there. 04:21 There was shared concern here in Illinois on both sides of the aisle, 04:26 as well as with the governor, the Senate President and the speaker for 04:30 high Medicaid facilities and protecting those facilities. 04:36 This, you know, the concern was across the board. 04:39 We also have the data on our side, Mark. 04:42 So it wasn't just our association saying that we were fearful of closures. 04:49 We've had over 50 closures in the last five years. 04:53 And then we actually referenced the Brown University study that when you zoomed in, 04:58 they were saying that there were another 93 long term care facilities in Illinois 05:04 there were at risk. 05:06 And so it really helped us to be able to point to a third party saying it who had 05:11 absolutely no connection with our association whatsoever. 05:15 And when you put that kind of data and those references in front of legislators, 05:20 they believed us and they shared the concern. 05:23 Yeah. 05:24 And the fact that buildings have actually closed, 05:26 that's that's that seems to be a tipping point for folks. 05:29 OK. 05:29 The final lesson is the idea of having one voice. 05:34 And HCCI is now the largest association in the history of Illinois in terms of, 05:40 you know, 61,000 beds. 05:41 That's impressive. 05:42 So to talk about the power of of that unity, what what you saw with that? 05:47 Yeah, it is definitely helped. 05:49 We have by far the most beds in the state, but we also have by far the most amount 05:54 of Medicaid in long term care. 05:57 And legislators and the administration, they know that. 06:02 So even though we're not completely unified in Illinois really for, 06:08 for practical discussions, it, it helped a great deal. 06:13 And so us becoming a part of AHCA and consolidating the industry much more than 06:19 it ever had before, I think that made a difference. 06:24 And legislators were less confused than they have been in the past. 06:29 Yeah, Well, Matt, congratulations. 06:31 I hope you get like a week or so of rest. 06:35 I'm not sure if the members are going to give you that much longer. 06:37 You're going to have to start working on the 2028 rate. 06:40 Yes. 06:41 Yeah. 06:41 There's not much time to rest. 06:42 As probably you know, the people who watch Park Place know that 06:46 there's not much time to rest. 06:49 Exactly. 06:50 Well, again, congratulations and thanks for joining us 06:53 again on Park Place. 06:54 And thanks all of you for your continued support of this website.
