AUSTIN, TEXAS – United in Care (UIC) was formally launched on Monday as an initiative to preserve the emergency COVID-19 funding for the long-term care profession in Texas.
Maintaining the funding increase in the state budget would help ensure that facilities can continue to procure personal protective equipment (PPE), administer regular testing, and afford the higher number of staff needed to keep residents safe during the pandemic. With new and necessary health and safety regulations having increased some facilities’ monthly costs by two to three-fold, eliminating emergency funding would be devastating for a sector of health care that has already struggled from years of underfunding.
“Long-term care was already vastly underfunded prior to COVID-19,” said Cara Gustafson, Spokesperson for United in Care. “Now, facilities are doing their best to cope with the costs of the new and necessary mandates to protect residents. However, these hard costs have only exacerbated an already unsustainable funding model. We must maintain the emergency funding increase or the extremely vulnerable Texans in long-term care could be put at great risk.”
Texas’ Medicaid reimbursement rate for long-term care facilities is already ranked as the second-worst in the country and does not even cover the daily cost of care per resident. With over two-thirds of residents on Medicaid, the financial picture for the profession is bleak. Additionally, due to ongoing underfunding, staffing shortages were in the tens of thousands prior to COVID-19. The shortage has only been exacerbated during the pandemic as the highly-skilled individuals needed to staff long-term care can obtain higher wages and benefits in other sectors of health care.
“Long-term care staff are essential to elderly and high-risk Texans, many of whom need round-the-clock care or do not have family or other resources to provide for them,” continued Gustafson. “We must do right by high-risk and elderly Texans in long-term care facilities and preserve the emergency funding needed to provide proper care and protection during this deadly and ongoing pandemic.”
To learn more about United in Care or to schedule an interview about the need to maintain the funding increase for long-term care facilities during COVID-19, please visit www.UnitedInCare.org or contact Cara Gustafson at the contact information above.
