Back in January, we noted Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Dave Baker's consternation about nursing home funding rates in If Baker is embarrassed now by nursing home funding, just wait until he learns how it happened.
Watching the video archives of Wednesday's House Aging and Long-Term Care Policy Committee meeting, Bluestem learned that Baker (R-Willmar) is so distressed by the low funding that, along with fellow freshman representative Brian Daniels (R-Faribault), he skipped two roll call votes on amendments to HF316, a bill modifying the state's nursing home reimbursement system.
Here's an edited video clip of the roll call votes and a bit of the debates (full committee hearing here), courtesy of The Uptake:
Forum Communications political reporter Don Davis wrote in Nursing home officials say lack of state funds hurts residents:
Minnesota nursing home workers can earn more money by working at Fleet Farm, Dairy Queen and a sugar beet processing plant than helping the elderly, nursing home administrators across the state complain.
That means, they told a House committee Wednesday, that nursing home residents are not getting care as good as they should. Staff turnover, they said, prevents nursing staff workers from knowing residents well enough to provide the best care. . . .
Glanzer and other administrators, from rural and city nursing homes alike, said the state does not provide enough money to pay adequate wages. The state sets rates nursing homes may charge, and the facilities have little to say about how much they pay workers.
Rep. Dave Baker, R-Willmar, was not happy with what he heard.
“As a freshman legislator, I am embarrassed that we allowed this to happen,” Baker said.
But when it came time for voting on two amendments that were intended to help address those concerns, Baker was missing in action.
The Session Daily's Sue Hegarty reports in Nursing home payment reform clears first committee hurdle:
Proposed amendments offered by Rep. Leon Lillie (DFL-North St. Paul) and Rep. Jerry Newton (DFL-Coon Rapids) that would have tied future payment increases to employee wages, or their cost of living expenses, failed on party-line roll call votes. Lillie also asked for projected financial impacts of the proposal, but Schomacker said the department needs time to prepare those numbers and that discussion will take place if and when the bill reaches the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee.
While much the earlier testimony from nursing home administrators concerned how higher wages at other employers made it difficult to attract and keep workers, Schomacker urged rejection of the amendments because he sought a broader reform that would recognize operating costs not related to wages.
It seems like a bit of a bait-and-switch, but at least Schomacker and the other Republicans on the committee had the character to stick around for the voice vote. Not so for Baker and Daniels, both of whom won narrow victories over DFL incumbents in November.
Photo: Assistant Minority Leader Dave Baker.
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