In case you missed it, U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and James Lankford (R-OK) sent a letter, joined by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jim Risch (R-ID), John Boozman (R-AR), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Steve Daines (R-MT), Angus King (I-ME), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Hoeven (R-ND), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Thune (R-SD), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure urging the Biden Administration to reverse their proposed staffing requirement for nursing homes.
The senators on both sides of the aisle expressed concern that in the midst of a historic workforce crisis, the proposed federal mandate will result in closures and further limit access to care for our most vulnerable. They write:
“In many parts of the country, America’s long-term care facilities are facing severe workforce shortage issues that are harming access to critical care for our nation’s seniors. With this [in] mind, we are deeply concerned that now is the worst possible time for the United States to establish the nation’s first federal staffing mandate for long-term care facilities. We believe the rule as proposed is overly burdensome and will result in additional closures and decreased access to care for our nation’s seniors. We urge you to rescind CMS’ proposed rule and instead commit to working with Congress on the large number of alternate solutions to quality of care in skilled nursing facilities.”
The Members of Congress also underscored that a recent study from CMS found that no level of staffing guarantees quality of care:
“CMS’ own ‘Nursing Home Staffing Study Comprehensive Report’ released in June of this year highlights the disparities between different facilities in different parts of the country as well as the difficulty to implement burdensome national requirements, further emphasizing our concerns over CMS’ federal mandate. This report also notes that current literature ‘does not provide a clear evidence basis for setting a minimum staffing level.’ While the proposed rule does attempt to address some of these disparities, we believe it falls short. For example, we are concerned by the requirement to have a Registered Nurse (RN) on site at all times being omitted from the hardship exemption and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) being omitted from counting them with RNs in the staffing ratio formula.
“More broadly, establishing federal blanket staffing standards do not provide the flexibility necessary to nursing homes in light of well-known and long-standing direct care workforce challenges, especially in rural and underserved areas. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that the health care sector is projected to have a shortage of nurses, 10 to 20 percent based on a spring 2022 estimate, in the coming years. If large, urban, multistate hospital corporations are having trouble hiring nurses, there is no doubt that this struggle will only be amplified for small rural nursing home providers. Many of these facilities are already expending significant effort and resources to recruit and retain clinical staff, including those facilities in the 38 states and the District of Columbia that have their own localized staff ratio requirements.”
Instead of a one-size-fits-all mandate that will jeopardize access to care for nearly 300,000 American seniors, U.S. Senators urge the Biden Administration to find policy alternatives that actually address the underlying challenges facing the long term care workforce. The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) have laid out several common-sense solutions in its Care for Our Seniors Act that help long term care facilities build a strong pipeline of caregivers. Meaningful reform--not a blanket, unfunded mandate--will ensure our precious seniors have continued access to the high-quality care they need and deserve.
Read the full letter HERE.
These U.S. Senators join a growing chorus of voices who have raised concerns over the Biden Administration’s proposed rule. See what voices, including other Members of Congress, from across the country are saying HERE, HERE and HERE.