Overview
The 2025 legislative session convenes in Olympia on January 13, 2025. This is a 105-day session where legislators must pass a two-year state operating budget that will be in effect from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2027. The budget news from Olympia has been grim—shortfall projects have ranged from $8-16 billion in recent weeks, and budget leaders must address the shortfall before adjourning in April. At the same time, we are dealing with a new Governor and 20 new legislators, which will present its own challenges.
Focus Areas
This budget will determine Medicaid funding for skilled nursing and assisted living providers already challenged to compete for certified and licensed professionals who deliver care. Access to the workforce was a barrier pre-COVID; the impact of a three-year public health crisis that drove workers from long-term care escalated an already untenable problem. We will ask the legislature to continue to progress in ensuring rates are related to actual care costs.
We will also ask the legislature to address important policy changes to eliminate workforce barriers that drive workers from employment in assisted living, including significant and ongoing testing and certification delays for home care aides, and FBI fingerprint background check requirements that cannot be fulfilled because of frequent cancellations by the contracted service provider. These problems are long-standing and unacceptable in a climate where competition for the workforce is fierce. We will also be advocating for improvements in insulin management in assisted living. Outdated statutory language restricts support for diabetics served in community-based settings; we are asking the legislature to address this problem.
For skilled nursing facilities, a measure to provide health care benefits modeled on an Oregon program will be introduced this year. We are proponents and continue to be interested in the programs that help attract and retain workers, and we believe that this program has the potential to do that.
How You Can Get Involved
Effective, ongoing advocacy will be vital as we work to educate new legislators and the new Governor about the importance of care and services in skilled nursing and assisted living centers throughout Washington—providers’ lived experience in supporting people in times of great need is important and necessary for informing policymakers—and we will call on our members to share their stories with their legislators, in public committee testimony, with the public, and in Olympia on February 14 as part of our Have A Heart for Seniors Rally on the steps of the State Capitol. Together, we can make a difference.
WHCA Government Relations Contacts
- Carma Matti-Jackson, CEO & President
- Lauri St. Ours, Executive Vice President of Government Relations & Communications
- Eric Negomir, Government Relations Manager