The following letter was sent to all of the legislative members serving on the House Appropriations committee and the Senate Ways & Means committee. These are the committees responsible for creating the state’s budget. The Governor, the House and the Senate of the Washington State Legislature have failed to establish and include a “Change of Ownership” fee in their budgets. Please take the time to contact your legislators to let them know we need this fee established and included in their budget to avoid paying the “Initial Licensing Fee” of $2,750.00 to submit for a change of ownership. If you do not know what legislative district you are in, click here to find your district. Please use this letter for talking points or send this exact letter to your legislators.
On behalf of the Adult Family Homes of Washington, I am write to you to express my disappointment that the Change of Ownership fee has not been established and included your supplemental budget.
We are disappointed because we know that HB1132 amended RCW 70.128 to state that a change of ownership “fee must be established in the omnibus appropriations act and any amendment or additions made to that act.” The bill passed unanimously through both chambers. We believe it is the duty and obligation of the legislature to define the change of ownership fee.
Current practice is to charge the AFH owner the initial licensing fee of $2750. It is unfair to require the excessive fee when a provider is only asking the state to recognize a change in business structure, or to remove an ex-spouse from a license. This fee is a barrier to many provider who are currently waiting for a more reasonable fee to be set in order to modify the business structure.
We understand that ending the practice of overcharging AFH licensees for these services leaves a gap in the state budget. Reasonable proposals cost approximately $163,00-193,000 annually. There has been a question of how this loss in revenue will be backfilled, and the answer appears to be, backfill this by continuing to overcharge AFH owners.
To put this amount of cost into perspective, I ask you to consider the following.
- Adult family homes serve a very high population of Medicaid funded resident (approx. 57%).
- They serve the highest acuity of clients in any home and community based services.
- Without these resources these residents are likely to end up in skilled nursing setting.
- The average rate for an AFH is $87 per day, versus the average rate in a skilled nursing home of $220 per day.
- Change of ownerships effect approximately 600 AFH residents per year
- If this change in fee structure preserves an adult family home resource for 4 residents, that is an annual savings of more than $194,000.
Please consider the fairness of our request, and include the change of ownership fee in your supplemental budget.
Click here to view AFH Council’s testimony before the House Approriations Committee
Click here to view AFH Council’s testimony before the Senate Ways & Means Committee
