The Minnesota Senate today approved the budget bill of the Human Services Committee to help stabilize the state’s struggling long-term care facilities. This legislation provides significant resources for disability and long-term care services, representing an investment in some of Minnesota’s most vulnerable communities. 

Highlights of this legislation include: 

• Increased funding for elderly and disability services. 

• Additional funding for a grant program to provide for state-funded home and community-based services (HCBS) in rural and underserved communities. 
• Establish a new grant program for HCBS providers to recruit and retain direct support workers by providing retention bonuses of up to $1,000 per year and other employee benefits. 

“It essential that we serve Minnesota’s most vulnerable people by supporting the state’s hard-hit long-term care industry for seniors and disabled communities,” Senator Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), the lead Republican of the Senate Human Services Committee said. “Minnesota’s nursing homes continue to be overwhelmed by a critical lack of staff and face an ongoing, dire emergency, and many have closed or are about to close. This year’s Human Services budget is a needed and much-appreciated movement in the right direction. Though it does a lot of good, I am disappointed to not see more aggressive support for nursing homes across the state.” 

The Human Services budget bill still does not adequately address the severe workforce shortage issues for nursing homes, which have been closing down due to significant pressures driven by decisions made at the state level. Without adequate staffing, nursing homes have been forced to turn away seniors in need.  

According to Leading Age, in October 2022, 11,000 seniors were turned away from long term care – including thousands of seniors who were turned away from nursing homes because they couldn’t hire enough staff to ensure quality and safe care. Further, more than 20% of staffing positions are unfilled, leaving the care facilities that are open shorthanded and overworked. This can lead to diminished care for seniors in need – seniors who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. 

In Minnesota alone, there has been the equivalent of 45 nursing home closures. When nursing homes close, hospital patients who are ready to transition to nursing home care are forced to stay in hospitals, where they pay higher rates for their care, or families rush to find space for their loved ones and are sometimes forced to move them many miles from the people and places they love.  

“Without a major change in direction, Minnesota nursing homes will continue to struggle with finding enough employees, and some will even be forced to shut down. There are more than 50,000 Minnesotans expected to turn 80 years old in the next five years. We need to ensure that our nursing homes receive the funding necessary to provide our Minnesota seniors receive the kind of care they deserve and need in their golden years,” Senator Abeler concluded.