Senate Bill No. 442
(By Senators Grubb, Bailey, White and Macnaughtan)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article five, chapter nine of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
by adding thereto a new section, designated section
eighteen, relating to the improvement of nursing home care
by reimbursing facilities for a portion of wage increases
granted to nonsupervisory employees.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article five, chapter nine of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
eighteen, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
§9-5-18. Nursing home quality improvement; compensation of
nonsupervisory employees.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares that the quality of
long-term care provided by nursing home facilities is directly
affected by the stability of the workforce at nursing facilities.
The Legislature further finds that the present compensations of
nonsupervisory employees is not adequate to reduce staff turnover
and provide the requisite staffing stability at long-term care
facilities, thereby adversely affecting patient care.
(b) The Legislature hereby creates the nursing home quality
improvement fund. The purpose of the fund is to improve
compensation for nonsupervisory employees of medicaid reimbursed
nursing facilities. The Legislature hereby authorizes the
appropriation of one million, five hundred thousand dollars to
the fund for the fiscal year commencing the first day of July,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-six.
(c) The department of health and human resources shall
disburse moneys from the fund to provide additional medicaid
reimbursement to eligible nursing care facilities that have made
substantive efforts to improve the wages of nonsupervisory
employees of long-term care nursing facilities. Nursing care
facilities will be eligible for additional reimbursement if they
have granted wage increases to nonsupervisory employees in excess
of five percent in any one fiscal year, commencing with the fiscal year commencing the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-six.
(d) The amount of the reimbursement shall be equal to the
difference between the five percent increase described in
subsection (c) of this section and the actual wage increase
granted by the facility.
(e) For each fiscal year commencing on or after the first
day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, additional
reimbursements provided under this section may not be included in
the calculation of any rules limiting cost under medicaid.
(f) The department shall provide for additional
reimbursements from the fund in the time period the wage
increases are granted by eligible facilities. The department
shall make adjustments to the additional reimbursements in the
cost accounting period immediately following the additional
reimbursement.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to improve the quality of
long-term care provided by nursing home facilities by improving
staff quality through an increase in the compensation of
nonsupervisory employees.
This section is new, therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.