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ALTA divisions review service priorities and WA Cares implementation ahead of 2025 session
Summary
DSHS/ALTA directors outlined operational priorities: Residential Care Services emphasized staffing rules, inspections and CMP grant reinvestment; Home & Community Services highlighted pilot presumptive eligibility, a spousal support waiver and senior nutrition funding needs; WA Cares leadership outlined implementation, portability and IT (BAMS) requirements.
A series of DSHS and Aging & Long-Term Support Administration (ALTA) directors briefed the conference on near-term implementation and policy priorities.
Amy Abbott (Residential Care Services) described regulatory oversight of licensed long-term care settings (adult family homes, assisted living, enhanced service facilities, supported living and CMS-regulated nursing homes), the agency's complaint investigation process, and civil-monetary-penalty grants used to reinvest fines in resident-centered improvements. Abbott said the number of regulated providers has grown markedly since 2014, particularly adult family homes, and noted ongoing rulemaking on infection prevention and federal nursing-home staffing expectations.
Kathy Kinnaman (Home & Community Services) outlined HCS programs and asked for funding to implement new federal Medicaid rules (access and redetermination changes), and to expand services such as presumptive eligibility pilots and a spousal-support waiver that would allow spouses to provide paid personal-care services. She emphasized a request for increased funding for senior nutrition and warned area agencies on aging would have to cut meals by roughly 40% without a rate change.
Kathy Morgan (Adult Protective Services) reviewed a surge in APS reports (66,000 reports in 2023), growing financial-exploitation and self-neglect caseloads, and the need to implement new federal APS rules and an alternative-response pilot for self-neglect cases to build rapport and reduce recurrence. Ben Vecchio (WA Cares Fund) summarized operational needs for the WA Cares Fund, including IT systems, portability rules, and provider training and certification for family-paid caregiver options.
ALTA's management services director described a large biennial request (maintenance-level and provider-rate items) driven by caseload growth and rate parity requests; presenters repeatedly asked advocates to support senior-nutrition funding and to monitor JLAC and the 2025 budget process.
