MASSACHUSETTS – State lawmakers have passed a budget with $415.4 million for Medicaid funding to nursing homes – a $50 million increase from last year. 

However, the difference between what MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, pays nursing homes and what they spend on care is about $362 million, according to the Massachusetts Senior Care Association. 

Tara Gregorio, president of the MSCA, says the underfunding has been “a major driver of more than 30 nursing facility closures in the last 18 months.”