In September, the White House proposed a rule to establish a federal floor for staffing levels at nursing homes. If finalized, facilities would be required to have a registered nurse (RN) onsite 24/7.
- Two additional staffing rules were announced at the time, including a new effort to enforce existing staffing requirements like mandating eight hours of RN care per day.
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Nursing homes would also be required to provide about two-and-a-half hours of per-resident, day-of-care from nurse aides.
Nearly 95 percent of nursing homes do not meet at least one of the three proposed rules, according to the American Health Care Association trade group.
“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,” Democratic Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) wrote in a bipartisan letter.
“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,” he added.
Tester was joined by Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), and independents Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Angus King (Maine), as well as more than 20 Republicans.
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The lawmakers said the rule would result in “limited access to care for seniors, mandatory increases in state Medicaid budgets, and could most consequentially lead to widespread nursing home closures.”
- Their arguments echo industry groups who say any federal standard is unfeasible because of a nationwide staffing shortage made worse by the pandemic.
However, other Democrats have called the proposed rules a positive step in the right direction.
“Residents deserve the best of care from highly trained, fairly compensated, and sufficiently numbered staff,” Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and 99 other House Democrats wrote in a letter, urging the administration to “strengthen and finalize” the proposal.
