AHCA Letters to President Biden Offers Suggestions to Improve Quality of Care and Address the Impending Federal Staffing Mandate

Posted in INDUSTRY NEWS, Long-Term Care

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare

AHCA/NCAL sent a letter to President Biden on July 24, 2023 that included 4 proposals to “help nursing homes continue to improve the quality of care they provide to our nation’s seniors and individuals with disabilities.”

“In the enclosed document, we outline four policy proposals in greater detail:

  1. Publicly Report Customer Satisfaction
  2. Build the Long-Term Care Workforce
  3. Improve the Special Focus Facility Program
  4. Enhance CMS’ SNF Value-Based Purchasing Program”

Please read, share and discuss these four proposals with your team.

I encourage you to also read, share and discuss the AHCA/NCAL July 11, 2023 letter that spoke to the closure of nursing homes across the country and the impending drop of a Federal staffing mandate.  The statistics address the loss of staff and are serious – they should not be taken lightly.

“Over the course of the pandemic, nursing homes disproportionately lost more workers than any other health care sector, including registered nurses (RN), licensed practical nurses (LPN), and certified nursing assistants (CNA). Still today, while other health care sectors have largely recovered, nursing homes need nearly 190,000 workers to return to pre-pandemic levels. At the current pace, this job recovery will not occur until late 2026 at the earliest. Every nursing home in America is trying to hire workers, but they are not out there. According to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), 100,000 RNs left the workforce during pandemic. The lack of interested or qualified candidates means that for some nursing homes, especially in rural communities, job postings for nursing positions have goneunanswered for years.

It’s not too late to reconsider this staffing mandate proposal and refocus on more meaningful solutions. Much has changed since your Administration announced this policy proposal some 18 months ago. Hundreds of nursing homes have closed, a mass exodus of nursing staff across health care has occurred, and the evidence of a future nursing shortage is profound. It’s time to work together on real solutions.

We all want better care in nursing homes. Let’s not make things worse in our efforts to improve.”

Above are snippets from both letters. Please take the time to read them in full.