President and CEO Keith Hare wrote to Gov. Ralph Northam this week asking him to sign HB 902/SB 902, the legislation to improve the Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Screening process for patients receiving nursing facility care. The bills passed the General Assembly unanimously and were a top legislative priority for the association.

HB 902 and SB 902 provide an efficient and responsible approach to screening patients who have been discharged from the hospital to receive short-stay skilled rehabilitation in a nursing facility should they subsequently need access to Medicaid long term services and supports. VHCA-VCAL has worked closely with DMAS and a broad stakeholder group on this legislation.

This legislation removes the requirement for the hospital screening teams to do a Medicaid assessment for individuals discharging from the hospital to a nursing facility for a non-Medicaid, short-stay rehabilitation admission. Under the bills, a patient would instead only be screened to determine if he or she needs Medicaid coverage of long term services and supports at a later point if his or her condition has changed and may warrant such services. This change will make the screening process more efficient and effective for this specific circumstance. The legislation does not affect the need for hospital screening when the patient is discharging directly to Medicaid long term care services, nor does it affect community screenings at all.

Once signed, DMAS would need to develop regulations and amend the State Plan with CMS to effectuate this change; the actual effective date of the change is not yet certain due to this process. VHCA-VCAL is appreciative of the efforts of our bill patrons, Del. Mark Sickles (D-Fairfax) and Sen. George Barker (D-Fairfax) for their efforts at to advance the bills.