GETZVILLE, N.Y. — Health care workers say New York state has not increased its Medicaid reimbursement rate for hospitals and nursing homes in 15 years and actually decreased it by 1% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1199SEIU Upstate Division Executive Vice President Todd Hobler said it's time for that to change.

"The state has an obligation to make health care a priority,” Hobler said. “It should be their first priority and yet here we are in the rain and the hail demanding more funding for health care.”

The union helped organize a brief walkout at the Weinberg Campus, a senior and assisted living facility in Getzville, New York. Staff there said the system is in crisis and it's affecting their ability to help patients.

"We're trying to take care of the residents the best way we can with what we have,” Environmental Support Worker Toni Banks said. “If we don't have the money, what can we do? We do the best we can.”

"We have to get them up, wash them, change them and if we don't have anybody to do that it's like a snowball effect," LPN Nell Robinson said. "Bad things happen from that."

As state lawmakers continue to negotiate the budget, union leaders and health care providers are pushing for a significant increase in the reimbursement rate this year. They're calling for 20% at nursing homes and 10% for Upstate hospitals. Hobler said it will help address rising costs, recruitment and retention of staff and other resources for facilities.

"The Medicaid rates that pay for most of the care in the nursing homes and many of our hospitals does not cover the cost of providing that care. That's the gap," he said.

Weinberg President and CEO Robert Mayer said advocates have been lobbying lawmakers for months, but the proposed increase for nursing homes in the executive budget of 5% and the counter-proposals for 10% in the state Senate and Assembly plans are not enough.

"It's absolutely terrible that seniors in New York state who deserve the best care possible aren't able to access those services because the Medicaid rates are not enough," Mayer said.

He said when nursing home beds are off-line it backs up hospitals because they can't discharge patients.