With the Washington Legislature winding down, retirement-industry experts were predicting last week that the industry would reap far better legislative gains than it had expected when the session began. Even those gains, though, would fall short of what the industry needs, they say.


Budgets passed by both the House and Senate included about twice as much money for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities as the increases that had been proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire in her preliminary budget. Meanwhile, a bill that would protect senior citizens from living-trust scams has passed both chambers, as has a measure that would grant guardianship services to low-income seniors.


This is a good start, says Gary Weeks, executive director of the Washington Health Care Association.


Still, the additional money earmarked to fund nursing homes and assisted-living facilities wont come close to covering the Medicaid reimbursement shortfall that retirement facilities suffer, says Weeks.


The state money for nursing homes, which we think the governor will approve, when matched with federal Medicaid dollars as expected, would amount to about (an increase of) $60 million, Weeks says. That would cover one year of nursing-home losses (across the state), but not the two years a biennial budget covers.


Among the other senior-related bills that still had a chance of passing during the sessions final days are one that would help protect vulnerable adults, one calling for the state to assign temporary managers to operate poorly run assisted-living facilities in hopes of keeping them from closing, and one to form a task force to study reimbursement options for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.


The budgets of both chambers include a provision that would update cost estimates for Medicaid reimbursements for both nursing homes and assisted-living facilities to 2005 cost figures, plus 3.2 percent for 2006, says Weeks. He says the last full re-basing update for such facilities was done in 1999, and that a partial update was done in 2003.


Using those re-basing figures, the House and Senate were in sync as of last week in earmarking an additional $30 million in Medicaid reimbursements for nursing homes, twice the increase that Gregoire had proposed. We think she will approve that $30 million amount, he says.


Weeks adds that a Medicaid reimbursement increase is expected for assisted-living facilities as well. He says that as of last week, the Senates budget included $9.9 million in additional money for assisted-living facilities, while the Houses budget called for $8.5 million. The governors preliminary budget had earmarked just $5 million, he says.


These are good steps in the right direction, but we need to keep closing the gap between costs and Medicaid reimbursements to prevent giving up Medicaid beds to private-pay customers, Weeks says.


Bills aimed at seniors


Measures aimed at protecting seniors from living-trust scams and providing guardianship services to those who cant afford them have been passed unanimously by both chambers.


House Bill 1114 prohibits anyone other an attorney or someone authorized by an attorney to market estate-distribution documents, especially living trusts, in Washington. The bill was passed to help prevent unqualified vendors from selling such documents then using private information gained in the transactions to sell other products the elderly buyer might not need, says Richard Sayre, a Spokane attorney who advocated the change.


Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna has called such situations trust mill scams.


Says Jeanne Dawes, a paralegal at the Spokane law firm Gore & Grewe PS, The elder population is specifically targeted to buy things they dont understand and dont need.


The guardianship measure, SB 5320, would establish a public program through the states judicial branch that would offer guardianship services to individuals without family support or who cant afford such services on their own, says Peter Greenfield, secretary of the Elder Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association.


Among the bills that were still under consideration as of last week was HB 1008, which would make it easier for individuals to act on behalf of vulnerable adults, such as disabled adults and others incapable of taking care of themselves physically or financially, says Spokane attorney Lynn St. Louis, president-elect of the Washington chapter of The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.


That measure would help vulnerable adults in three ways, St. Louis says. It would eliminate a $200 filing fee currently charged to people who file for a protection order to help prevent suspected physical abuse or financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. It would broaden the definition for filers to allow interested parties to file such claims. It would authorize the development of standard forms to facilitate the filing process, she says.


The purpose of the bill is just to make it easier to protect vulnerable adults, St. Louis says.


Meanwhile, HB 1447, if enacted, would allow the state to hire temporary managers to improve conditions at assisted-living facilities that arent in compliance with state regulations, in hopes of keeping the facilities open, Weeks says.


Money to pay for those managers would come from civil penalties the state charges such facilities for compliance violations.


It has only happened twice in the past several years, but without this bill the health department found problems and closed facilities, causing residents to go to other places to live, says, who previously served as director of the state Department of Labor and Industries.


St. Louis says HB 1447 has passed both houses.


Another proposal to form a joint House-Senate task force to study reimbursement options for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities is included in HB 1128, the Houses budget bill, Weeks says.


Not enthralled with the idea of another study on the topic, he says, Weve already studied this matter to death; now, we need to get some results.


Weeks adds, though, that the study would be slated to begin soon after the legislative session is over, and that some recommendations from it could emerge as early as 2008. He says hes been assured by legislative leaders that the effort wouldnt be just another study, and that action would follow.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.