Tri-Cities nonprofit for elderly says Medicaid cuts are ‘worst crisis’ they’ve seen
A Tri-Cities nonprofit is sounding the alarm on Medicaid cuts. They believe the cuts could lead to a crisis that hurts their clients, raises health care costs for everyone and puts an unsustainable strain on health care in the Tri-Cities.
Adult Day Services of Tri-Cities has provided medical care and social activities that help adults live independently since 1982. They’re worried that Medicaid reductions could mean many of their seniors will lose access to critical medical and social services.
Once supported by Trios, they’re now an independent nonprofit serving disabled adults, seniors and veterans who almost all rely on Medicaid.
With the passage of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Thursday, the organization is one of many Tri-Cities nonprofits facing a major blow. Trump signed the bill on the July 4 holiday.
Losing access to the routine and preventive care, as well as social support, that Adult Day Services provides will lead to worse health outcomes for their clients.
Emergency room and skilled nursing center leaders in Washington say they don’t have the capacity to handle the potential surge in new patients. That will make accessing fast, higher-quality care more difficult for everyone, they say.
Living at home longer
Adult Day Services offers a variety of help, ranging from activities designed to keep patients cognitively sharp to diabetic care and help managing medication and appointments.
Many live in adult family homes and come to the center for the variety of care offered.
While at Adult Day Services, clients participate in various activities, get a hot meal and are cared for by medical professionals. Most of their clients use Ben Franklin Transit’s Dial-A-Ride service to get to the center at 10 N. Washington St. in downtown Kennewick.
The services are proven to help slow cognitive decline and keep patients from needing full-time skilled nursing care.
By helping patients keep active, they also help reduce the need for hospitalizations. That’s critical at a time when emergency room waits are longer than ever and skilled nursing centers have had to reduce the number of Medicaid beds they can afford to supplement.
The center also allows caretakers and family the opportunity to run errands, catch up on housework or simply get some time to themselves to decompress.
French is especially concerned about patients who don’t have family in the area. She worries that without the services the patients won’t have anyone checking in on them.
Social worker Mika Maya said that beyond just having someone who knows when a client might need to be checked on, there’s also a concern for those in adult family homes.
“A lot of our clients don’t have family that live in town, they live in adult family homes,” Maya said. “If budgets get cut, there goes a bed. Where do they go? So there’s that chance of homelessness as well.”
French added that it could also lead to more caregivers being unable to manage work and taking care of a family member.
“If this goes through, what I’ve heard is it will be our worst crisis we’ve ever been in. I think for our clients that we serve, it will be the worst crisis they’ve ever been in,” she said. “I would just like to know the plan if these cuts go through. It would be nice to know before we’re in that predicament”
At 90% Medicaid funding, there is a very real possibility that any cuts could mean clients wouldn’t be able to attend, and the nonprofit wouldn’t be able to keep staff.
“If we could do this for free, I still would because I believe in it so much,” she said.
Over the past two decades she’s seen plenty of economic uncertainty, but none of the swings have ever caused this much concern.
“Being here 20 years we’ve seen a lot of ups and downs and always made it through it, but I can tell you this is probably the most concerning, for me, of anything we’ve ever faced,” French said.
Mandy Walling, who is the activity coordinator and a registered nurse, said the loss of social interaction could be debilitating for clients. Being isolated could lead to depression and a more sedentary lifestyle, which would then likely lead to a higher risk of health issues such as falls.
Walling said that this higher risk of health issues would impact the quality of care for all Tri-Citians, whether it’s longer wait times for an emergency room visit or increased strain on already limited number of specialists in the area.
“We only have a couple hospitals here and the wait times are long and severe in the ER, then all these people start having more and more breakdowns and emergencies because they’re not being kept healthy,” she said. “We will all be waiting a lot longer.”
WA hospital impacts
Cantwell said in a recent Senate floor speech that hospital providers would have to shoulder an additional $36 billion in costs for people with no health care coverage, and part of those costs would be recouped by people who rely on health insurance from their job.
People with employment-based insurance would see an additional cost increase of $282 to $485 a year, she said.
While several of the major cuts in the Big Beautiful Bill have been blocked by the Senate’s Byrd Rule on spending, lawmakers have vowed to find a way to make them outside of the main spending bill. The rule is intended to prevent matters of policy from being decided in spending bills unless they can meet a 60-vote threshold.
In the run-up to passing the bill, Republican senators rejected amendments to their version of the bill that would have saved Medicaid, food stamp and rural hospitals from experiencing cuts, according to the Associated Press.
It’s unclear how quickly funding cuts to these programs will reach the Tri-Cities.
Grant -funded programs may have already lost funding due to various freezes. Direct Medicaid funding could be cut as soon as the start of the 2026 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Washington State Hospital Association President Cassie Sauer said in a news release that the bill is a disaster for Washington state hospitals.
She also said protections added for rural hospitals were wholly inadequate, and will not save the already struggling healthcare facilities from closure. Prosser Memorial Health and Lourdes in Pasco are designated as rural Critical Access Hospitals.
“Offering this as a solution is like punching someone in the face and then offering them a Band-Aid,” she said.
Sauer said the bill jeopardizes the health care system for everyone, and could lead to layoffs, elimination of services and hospital closures. She said hundreds of thousands of Washington residents will lose health insurance and payments for Medicaid enrollees will be slashed.
“There is no way we can absorb this level of cuts in the Medicaid program without massive impacts to all Washingtonians’ access to care,” Sauer said.