Today, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requesting a meeting with the White House, HHS, and CMS to clarify some of the inaccuracies informing the president’s nursing home reform agenda released last week.
The industry hopes to set the record straight, including on how:
- The quality of nursing home care was increasing over the past decade, specifically thanks to initiatives where federal regulators and providers were working together.
- The rhetoric surrounding last week’s White House announcement was disappointing and demoralizing to an already beaten down health care sector.
- During the COVID pandemic, nursing homes were not prioritized by public health officials for resources and the lack of a coordinated, federal response enabled high spread in the general population that ultimately lead to nursing home outbreaks.
- President Biden’s plan does not address the chronic underfunding of Medicaid or offer meaningful supports to help nursing home providers meet increasing requirements. Until policymakers properly invest in long term care, nursing homes will continue to struggle, and more facilities will have to close their doors – limiting access to care for potentially millions of elderly Americans.
Read the full letter
here.