(Radio Iowa) – A new law requires the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to come up with a formula to raise the Medicaid reimbursement rate for Iowa nursing homes that accept registered sex offenders.

The higher reimbursement would only be available to nursing homes that establish a separate unit for sex offenders. “This is a growing need in our state,” Representative Joel Fry, a Republican from Osceola, said during House debate of the plan. “I’ve been working on this for a number of years, so we will hopefully come back with a rate that we could house these offenders at.”

The Department of Health and Human Services is to present their proposed Medicaid reimbursement rate for sex offenders in nursing homes by January 1.

Six years ago lawmakers discussed whether the state should establish a facility to care for geriatric patients who are convicted sex offenders or are sexually aggressive. Hundreds of the nearly 6,600 people listed on the state’s sex offender registry need skilled nursing care. And some of those who’ve been committed to the state unit for sexually violent offenders are in declining health or have been diagnosed with dementia and need to be transferred to a nursing home.