Senator Biaggi Calls on Department of Health to Rescind Regulation Eliminating Hospital Bed Hold for Elder And Vulnerable New Yorkers

BRONX, NY – On July 3rd 2019, nursing homes and in-treatment care facilities across New York state were officially notified by the Department of Health with information relating to the recently adopted regulation amending Medicaid reimbursement of reserved bed days due to hospitalization leaves of absences, effectively eliminating the hospitalization bed hold.

This means that if a resident is admitted to the hospital, their “facility” bed will not be held, unless the bed hold is paid for out of pocket by the resident or family. Furthermore, the bed may not be available when the resident returns from the hospital, forcing elderly and vulnerable New Yorkers on Medicaid to lose their housing.

This change was approved after months of objections from Long-Term Care (LTC) facilities and advocacy groups across the state. The change relates to Section 505.9 of 18 NYCRR and Section 86.240 of 10 NYCRR and officially went into effect on May 29th, 2019 as listed on the Department of Health website.

State Senator Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx/Westchester) issued the following statement:

It is criminal to literally rip the beds out from underneath elderly and vulnerable New Yorkers on Medicaid while they are temporarily away from their long-term care facilities for hospitalization or emergency care, only to cut corners for the budget. Low-income seniors are already at risk of eviction and often depend on long-term care facilities for shelter, access to food, and other basic necessities. District 34 is home to dozens of generous nursing homes that will now be forced into an impossible position to either push their residents into homelessness or scrounge up alternative avenues to pay for them to stay. I thank Throgs Neck Providence Rest for bringing this issue to my attention – I will not allow New York to save money at the expense of senior New Yorkers’ housing and safety, and call on the Department of Health to rescind this regulation change immediately.”

###