WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Health Care Association (AHCA), representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and other long term care facilities across the country that provide care to approximately five million people each year, released a statement today in response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule, Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting.
The following statement is attributable to AHCA President and CEO Mark Parkinson:
“It is unfathomable that the Biden Administration is proceeding with this federal staffing mandate proposal. Especially when just days ago, we learned that CMS’ own study found that there is no single staffing level that would guarantee quality care.
“At the very same time, nursing homes are facing the worst labor shortage in our sector’s history, and seniors’ access to care is under threat. This unfunded mandate, which will cost billions of dollars each year, will worsen this growing crisis.
“It requires nursing homes to hire tens of thousands of nurses that are simply not there. It then penalizes us and threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of residents when we can’t achieve the impossible. Already, hundreds of nursing homes across the U.S. have closed because of a lack of workers.
“We hope to convince the administration to never finalize this rule as it is unfounded, unfunded, and unrealistic. We will vigorously defend access to care for our nation’s seniors and advocate for common sense solutions to improve quality and strengthen the long term care workforce.”