By Lisa Watts
Pennsylvania’s first Medicaid rate increase in nearly a decade came after publication of an LTSS Center report on the need for increased funding.
The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston is celebrating a recent decision affecting Medicaid rates in Pennsylvania.
In July 2022, Governor Tom Wolf and the state’s legislature agreed to increase Medicaid rates for nursing homes in the state by roughly 20%—the first substantial increase in nearly a decade. The increased funding, totaling nearly $300 million, should help nursing homes increase worker salaries, staffing levels, and retention while stabilizing their finances and improving quality of care.
The funding decision comes a little less than two years after LTSS Center researchers made the case for additional funding in their report, What Is Happening to Pennsylvania’s Nursing Homes?
The LTSS Center study, funded by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, detailed the financial struggles and other challenges facing Pennsylvania’s nursing homes. The study was conducted by a research team at UMass Boston that included LTSS Center Co-Director Marc Cohen, LTSS Center researcher Edward Alan Miller, and UMass Boston gerontology students Molly J. Wylie and Elizabeth Simpson.
Read more at the Gerontology Institute Blog.