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A serious conflict over a suggested minimum staffing requirement for the nation’s 15,500 nursing home staffing is developing between the Biden administration and the influential nursing home business.
Last year, President Joe Biden unveiled a list of nursing facility changes and promised that staffing minimums would be one of them. The revised rules are still being examined and might be published at any time.
If the minimum level is fair, it will make a significant difference after 20 years, according to Charlene Harrington, an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Francisco who studies the effect of nursing home staffing on service quality.
Since more personnel means residents are safer and receive better care, advocates have been calling for this rule for more than two decades, but the business has successfully resisted.
The coronavirus pandemic then broke out. As a result of the epidemic, which killed more than 200,000 nursing home patients as well as staff members, federal officials were forced to take action.
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Industry Challenges Feasibility of Government Staffing Norm
What will be recommended is unknown because the rule has not yet been published. Since last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have been researching its minimal staffing proposal.
At first, the agency stated that it intended to publish the rule in the spring. The White House Office of Management and Budget has been reviewing it since May 30.
Industry associations, however, assert that no government norm is achievable because of the severe national staffing shortage brought on by the pandemic. Additionally, they claim that because Medicaid reimbursement rates are too low, it amounts to an unfunded government mandate.
LeadingAge does not expressly oppose a federal standard, but it does demand that the government fulfill a very precise set of requirements before establishing a minimum ratio. For instance, the group seeks federal guarantees that there are no long-term care staffing shortages and Medicaid coverage for at least 95% of the cost of care.
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Source: thehill.com
