Braun signs Medicaid long-term-care bill at Timbers of Jasper
Braun’s Jasper signing tied new Medicaid long-term-care rules to the seniors, nursing homes and families who will feel them first.
Gov. Mike Braun brought House Enrolled Act 1277 to The Timbers of Jasper on May 8, turning a statewide Medicaid overhaul into a local moment for Dubois County families who pay for, provide or rely on long-term care. The bill had already been signed into law on March 12, but the ceremonial signing at American Senior Communities’ Jasper facility put the changes in front of the people most likely to live with them: older adults, nursing-home residents and their caregivers.
HEA 1277 updates Indiana’s Medicaid long-term services and supports system across assisted living services, nursing-facility care, home- and community-based services and home health reimbursement. It also directs the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to apply for a separate Medicaid waiver for assisted living services for people age 60 and older who meet nursing-facility-level-of-care requirements. Another provision requires FSSA to seek an amendment to a waiver so an individual cost limit does not exceed the institutional cost of nursing-facility services.
For Dubois County families, those changes matter in practical terms. The law is meant to reshape how Indiana pays for care when an older adult can no longer safely live independently, whether that means help at home, a move to assisted living or a nursing-facility bed. One bill summary says some Medicaid recipients would no longer remain in managed care after 100 consecutive days in a nursing facility beginning July 1, 2027, a shift that could affect billing, coverage and how facilities handle long-stay residents.
The policy backdrop is PathWays for Aging, Indiana’s Medicaid program for Hoosiers age 60 and over, which launched on July 1, 2024. State materials said the program started for more than 123,000 eligible Hoosiers and that officials believed 75% of enrollees could receive long-term care at home. But the program also drew criticism over access and administration, including a reported waitlist of more than 17,000 seniors. LeadingAge Indiana called the law a “course correction” for gaps in PathWays, especially access to assisted-living waiver services.
The Jasper setting gave the bill a clear local message. The Timbers is not a ceremonial backdrop in the abstract. It is a long-term-care community where staffing, reimbursement and Medicaid eligibility shape daily life. Holding the signing there placed Braun and state leaders in the middle of the care network they are trying to alter, and signaled to nursing homes, assisted-living operators and home-care providers that Indiana’s financing rules are changing in places like Dubois County first, not in a policy memo.
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