Legislators on Tuesday asked the Arkansas Department of Human Services to look at increasing the rate the state Medicaid program pays assisted living facilities.
At a joint meeting of the Senate Committee on Children and Youth and the House Committee on Aging, Children, Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs, providers said the costs of staying in business have risen because of the coronavirus pandemic and the state's increased minimum wage since the Arkansas Legislative Council voted to cut the rates in 2018.
The average assisted living rate is $67.25, down from $80.33 in January 2019.
"We're in desperate need of more money in order to survive and provide proper care for our residents," said Ed Holman, chairman of the Arkansas Residential Assisted Living Association.
Mark White, chief legislative and intergovernmental affairs officer for the state Department of Human Services, said the current rate is adequate in covering those facilities' costs, and that three separate rate reviews, including two that took into account the minimum wage increase, had been done to look at the issue.
"Three times, what we've come back to is all in this range of 60-something dollars a day as opposed to the $80 a day that we had been paying for all this," White said, adding later that the previous rate was "substantially higher than it should have been."
White said the most recent cost survey had showed that for the vast majority of providers, their actual cost is less than the rate the state is paying through the Medicaid program, so "they've got some cushion."
Holman touted the cost savings of assisted living facilities compared with nursing homes, while White said the two types of facilities have different staffs and serve different populations.
Act 1230 of 2001 created assisted living as a new type of long-term-care facility and is available to individuals who don't require around-the-clock care.
"There will always be plenty of business for nursing homes. With the explosion of baby boomers just starting to need long-term care, all of their beds will be full very soon at tremendous cost to the state," Holman said. "We just want to offer an affordable option for people who do not require 24-hour care, and we want a program to be made available in every corner of the state."
He said the 2018 cuts resulted in eight assisted living facilities closing.
After nearly two hours of testimony, the committee unanimously approved a motion from Rep. Ashley Hudson, D-Little Rock, to have the Department of Human Services again study the rates.
"I think there's a lot of questions on people's minds as to whether or not these rates are appropriate, and I would request that we make a motion to request another review of these rates by DHS with an eye towards increasing the rates for the assisted living facilities to be more commensurate with the actual cost of the program," Hudson said.