Signature HealthCARE Leads Charge to Increase Personal Needs Allowance for Kentucky and Tennessee Residents
2024年6月21日 - 5:20AM
Kentucky and Tennessee recently passed legislation increasing how
much money residents in nursing homes can keep of their income to
use for personal items. The Personal Needs Allowance is the monthly
sum of money that residents who receive Medicaid may retain from
their personal income that remains exempt from nursing home care
costs. Signature HealthCARE and its
“legislative lady”, Kathy
Gallin, VP of Legislative Affairs and Health Policy led the
charge to bring much needed awareness to this quality-of-life issue
that effects so many nursing home residents across the country.
When Medicaid was passed into law in 1965, the cost of living
was undeniably a lot less than it is now. First-class stamps
and candy bars both went for a nickel. You could buy a full-sized
new car for around $3,000. You could fill up your tank with gas
that cost $.30 a gallon, and, when Congress and the President
decided on how much a nursing home resident should be able to keep
from his or her income toward meeting “personal needs”, they
decided that $30 per month would be a fair allowance.
Most Medicaid recipients who reside in nursing homes do have
some personal income, some in the form of a retirement fund, a
pension or even Social Security. These funds are typically
used for their cost of room and board and medical expenses,
however, Medicaid rules designate that there are exclusions, such
as personal articles which are covered by the Personal Needs
Allowance (PNA) and these amounts vary in dollar amount state to
state.
The Personal Needs Allowance is important to residents to enable
them to maintain a higher standard for quality of life in long-term
care facilities. It provides residents the opportunity to
participate in activities beyond those provided by the facility, to
remain connected with family and friends and to obtain basic items
that have a significant positive impact on the residents’ quality
of life and are a valuable compliment to the services provided by
the facility. And while Medicaid rules specify that a
resident’s PNA can be used to cover certain expenses that are NOT
covered by the monthly rate for their room and board, this
allowance is intended for residents to spend at their discretion on
items such as cell phones, toiletries, clothes, shoes and personal
care services like haircuts, a meal out with friends, cards to send
to family members, reading materials, or hobbies.
In 2014, Signature HealthCARE’s “legislative lady,” Kathy
Gallin, had a facility visit with the Florida President of the
Senate and he heard the message from our then resident council
president, “Ms. Lucy”, that she hardly had enough money in her PNA
account at the end of the month. That message transcended and
by a bipartisan vote the legislature increased the PNA from $70 per
month to $105 per month. The following year they raised it to
$130 per month and during the 2023 legislative session, without any
“ask,” raised the PNA to $160 per month.
After several years of researching the overall 50 state PNA’s,
we realized this was really a crucial issue and once again, Kathy
Gallin took the initiative to our legislators in Georgia, and they
followed suit, with bipartisan support, and ultimately raised their
PNA from $50 to $70 per month.
It is now 2024 and the cost of living has dramatically
increased, but the personal needs allowance across so many states
has not kept up accordingly, as had been the case in Kentucky and
Tennessee. And, while individual states do have the
ability to change this, many just don’t. The PNA in Kentucky
had not been updated for decades and had remained stagnant at $40
per month with no inflation or other factors having been made as
costs of living rise. The last PNA increase in Tennessee was
2009, where it remained at $50 per month.
The goal was to encourage policy makers to raise the Personal
Needs Allowance in Kentucky from $40 per month to $60 per month and
in Tennessee from $50 per month to $70 per month for our beloved
nursing home residents and again, through the efforts of our
“legislative lady,” Kathy Gallin, who began the discussions with
Kentucky legislators back in 2019, before COVID, and with the
support of Ashli Watts and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the
KAHCF, and the heartfelt support from Rep. Amy Neighbors, a
licensed nursing home administrator herself, the Kentucky
legislature approved a PNA increase for long term care residents in
the Commonwealth.
At the same time, Gallin, who is a board member of the Tennessee
Health Care Association, brought this to the legislative committee
and the THCA Board and they approved it to take to the
legislature. Representative Patsy Hazelwood and Senator
Ferrell Haile sponsored bills in both chambers, and ultimately the
Tennessee General Assembly passed an increase in the Personal Needs
Allowance from $50 per month to $70 per month.
And so, we applaud both the Kentucky General Assembly and the
Tennessee General Assembly as the Personal Needs Allowance will be
raised in both states and we are so grateful that our elected
officials listened and ultimately understood that this will enhance
the lives of so many long term care residents and their families
it was right thing to do!
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About Signature HealthCARE
Signature HealthCARE is a family-based healthcare company
offering Skilled Nursing & Assisted Living. The company’s
organizational culture inspires nearly 8,500 employees with our
foundational three pillars: Learning, Spirituality, and Innovation,
plus our Sacred 7 Principles: Be Heroic, Embrace Teamwork, Show
Compassion, Give Respect, Have Integrity, Encourage Positivity, and
Be Accountable. A growing number of Signature HealthCARE centers
are earning five-star quality ratings, the highest classification
from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and earning
QAPI accreditation. Signature HealthCARE has also been awarded a
Best Places to Work in Kentucky honor by the Kentucky Chamber of
Commerce, for six years.
Kathy Gallin
Signature HealthCARE
(502) 259-0239
kgallin@signaturehealthcarellc.com