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New Hampshire Reactivates Long Term Care Stabilization Program
Concord, NH — Today, Governor Chris Sununu reactivated New Hampshire’s Long Term Care Stabilization Program, which will offer stipends to frontline health care workers at Medicaid Facilities until December 31, 2020.
“The State of New Hampshire remains committed to ensuring that long term care facilities have the resources needed to confront the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Governor Chris Sununu. "Due to the rise in cases in New Hampshire, there remains an acute need to retain our health care workforce, and today’s announcement will help make sure we continue to have the system in place for those who rely on this care.”
Originally announced in April, the Long Term Care Stabilization Program has helped long term care facilities stabilize the health care industry’s workforce. Due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases here in New Hampshire, Medicaid providers that provide long term services in facility-based settings as well as in the home and community are experiencing increased challenges in retaining their frontline workforce, which has threatened critical staffing levels needed to provide continuity of long term supports and services to individuals in those programs. When talking with Long Term Care Facilities, workforce retention remains a top concern, which is why Governor Sununu has reactivated this program, which ends on December 31st to conform with CAREs Act stipulations that all dollars must be spent before 2021.
The Long Term Care Stabilization program will be operated in the same manner as the previous iterations of the program, with a $300 per week stipend for full time workers and a $150 stipend per week for part time workers. The details of the program can be found in Emergency Orders 31 and 45.
To date, the state has expended $67.6 million in stipends to workers at Medicaid facilities through the earlier Long Term Care Stabilization program. The State also expended $30 million to long term care facilities through the State’s Health Care System Relief Fund.
Long Term Care providers that participated in the first iteration of the stipend program will receive an email from the state informing them of the programs reactivation.