Minnesota nursing homes have been facing a terrible crisis over the last few years. Inflation coupled with delayed government payments for services has created the perfect storm for trouble. This led to staffing shortages, which then led to a decrease is capacity for many homes. While these issues affected every nursing home in Minnesota, our rural homes were hit the hardest. We have about 350 nursing homes throughout our state, and 41 were considering closure. They needed help.
As a reminder, we started the year with news of a $19 billion surplus—that’s a historic amount. So when our nursing homes were asking for help, the legislature’s logical top priority should have been helping them in any way possible. After all, these are the homes that take care of our loved ones. Unfortunately, Democrats weren’t interested in taking action. Instead, they decided to tackle their pet projects like expanding abortion access, a blackout bill that will hurt consumers, restoring the vote to felons, and more. The problem went unaddressed for months. It was wrong.
When session was drawing to a close, Senate Republicans took a stand. We had been hearing from these folks for months, and Democrats had shown a shocking disinterest in helping. Enough was enough, we had to get something done. That’s why we put forward a $300 million deal that included direct grants, facility rate increases, and a workforce inventive fund that came out to about $1.1 million for every nursing home in the state. With this funding, nursing homes would be able to address their staffing shortages and ensure they had enough resources to take care of the people who rely on their services.
Because of this funding, multiple homes in our area will receive payments to help keep their doors open: Cornerstone Nursing and Rehab Center in Bagley, Good Samaritan Society in Blackduck, Havenwood Care Center in Bemidji, Lakewood Care Center in Baudette, Mahnomen Health Center, and Neilson Place in Bemidji. These homes received one payment at the start of August and will receive a second identical payment next August in 2024. I’m optimistic that this will help these homes keep their doors open and their staff paid.
Though I’m happy we were able to strike this deal, it came at a high cost. Democrats held the funding hostage in exchange for their expensive bonding bill, which meant they were using nursing homes as a bargaining chip. This was wrong. This should have been one of the first issues addressed this year, but Democrats were more interested in political games.
This funding is important and will help homes across the state, but it’s currently a band-aid for the problem. Because Democrats were willing to let this problem build up over time, we’re going to have to revisit the issue at some point. This is not a long-term solution, but it’s a step in the right direction. For now, I am hopeful that this funding will help keep nursing homes open and ensure families have options that are close to home when looking at care centers for their loved ones.