Nursing home professionals and state legislators are sounding the alarm over the Biden Administration’s expected unfunded federal staffing mandate for nursing homes.
In a series of recently published op-eds, Michigan State Representative Jamie Thompson (R-MI-28), Health Management CEO Debbie Meade, and New Hampshire Health Care Association President and CEO Brendan Williams warn that the mandate could worsen labor shortages and limit access to care for our seniors. Facilities would be forced to continue limiting their admissions or perhaps permanently close their doors – a consequence particularly devastating for rural communities. Instead of an unfunded federal staffing mandate, they call on lawmakers to focus on more supportive policies that will help strengthen the long term care workforce.
Read more below:
Michigan State Representative Jamie Thompson in The Detroit News:
“Compromising on quality is a non-starter, so facilities can only take in as many residents as staffing levels allow. Most nursing facilities in Michigan today are accepting fewer residents than they did pre-pandemic, leaving some of our most vulnerable citizens on waitlists or searching for the care they need…
“Federal mandates are typically problematic to begin with, but when the entire long-term care industry is facing an unprecedented shortage of workers, requiring nursing homes to meet an arbitrary staffing ratio doesn’t make sense…
“Instituting a cookie-cutter mandate at the federal level assumes all nursing homes and state staffing environments are the same, but they’re not. Each facility has unique needs and challenges based on its residents and staff.
“A one-size-fits-all regulation would only exacerbate staffing shortages, not fix them. What we need now are policies and programs that will entice more people to work in the long-term care industry.”
Read the full op-ed HERE.
Health Management CEO Debbie Meade in Georgia’s James Magazine:
“In many rural areas, there are simply no workers with the needed skills. In more populated areas, nursing homes are competing not only with each other but also with hospitals and doctors’ offices. The aftermath of the pandemic compounded the problem, as many dedicated nurses left the profession and did not return…
“This isn’t a failure to recruit. The ongoing nursing shortage in Georgia has left us all grasping for the limited pool of available and qualified professionals, but there are not enough to go around. Facilities have been forced to rely on agency staffing, but their flexibility of work schedules does not align with the continuous care model that our residents require and deserve…
“Considering these challenges, a blanket mandate is not the solution that we need and would only cause further strain. Instead, lawmakers should focus their efforts on collaborative strategies that address the unique dynamics of each nursing home and its surrounding community. This could involve incentivizing healthcare workers to move to rural or underserved areas, developing partnerships with educational institutions and offering specialized training programs that cater to the needs of the long-term care profession and the vulnerable individuals served in our setting.”
Read the full op-ed HERE.
New Hampshire Health Care Association President and CEO Brendan Williams in Foster’s Daily Democrat:
“Rebuilding that workforce is an existential challenge, and not for lack of trying. As of the most recent state data, June of last year, the median wage for a licensed nursing assistant (LNA) in the Portsmouth area was $19.68 an hour. Indeed, looking online one can find nursing home wages of as much as $25.35 an hour for a LNA in the Seacoast area, plus sign-on bonuses.
“And yet vacancies still exist, for there simply are not enough licensed staff to go around. Thus, facilities are forced to use staffing agencies, which can pay more by charging providers infinitely more than they pay the agency workers providers contract for…
“Yet a potentially crushing blow awaits in the form of an unfunded staffing mandate the Biden Administration threatens to inflict upon nursing homes, despite bipartisan alarm, including a letter from U.S. senators warning such a mandate ‘could lead to the shuttering of facilities, especially in rural communities’…
“Thus, to pay runaway agency costs, and keep facilities open, an unfunded federal mandate would require very significantly raising the county property taxes that largely fund long-term care in the Granite State.”
Read the full op-ed HERE.