Resolve, Regarding the Nursing Facility Reform Transition Fund

Inflation protection for nursing facility payments

Effective April 13, 2026, Maine’s health department must adjust nursing facility payment guardrails for inflation. These guardrails are limits used during the three-year transition to new MaineCare payment rules. The cost-of-living adjustment applied to certain MaineCare services on January 1, 2026, also applies to these limits, retroactively. Later adjustments continue until the transition ends or the guardrails stop being used, whichever happens later. The department must also convene a group to review the Nursing Facility Reform Transition Fund and related payment rules. Members include the department, a statewide nursing facility organization, nursing facility operators, and the long-term care ombudsman. Meetings must be open to the public, with notice provided. The review covers past spending, remaining spending plans, the schedule for resetting payment rates, and funding sources for increases. It must compare the fund’s use for staff-pay cost-of-living increases with other funding sources for other direct-care service increases. The group must report to the Legislature’s health and human services committee by January 15, 2027. That committee can report related legislation to the 133rd Legislature in 2027.