It has been less than 72 hours since nursing home CDC reporting requirements were released. LeadingAge national met with CDC and CMS officials on behalf of the membership. They sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma, urging that they rescind the requirement because it is duplicative and will increase consumer confusion and nursing home staff burden. They are advocating for one standardized reporting form for universal reporting to states, localities, federal agencies and the public. They are finalizing a legislative request that will be added to their “4th” stimulus bill requests. Stay tuned, more coming. See the following ADVOACY ALERT.
ADVOCACY ALERT: ACT NOW
Today would have been our national LeadingAge Lobby Day on Capitol Hill. While we will not be meeting face to face with congressional offices, we encourage all LeadingAge Kansas members to take part in a National Day Of Action and help support key legislative asks with Congress. Go HERE to contact your members of Congress. Remember that you can edit the asks and/or language as you see fit.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Action Alert was written before the CDC reporting requirements came out. We strongly encourage you to add another ask to the prefab letter. Say something like “I urge you to tell CMS and the CDC to rescind the requirement that nursing homes report to the CDC because it is duplicative (we already report to the local health department and the state survey agency), overly broad (any respiratory symptoms are to be reported, but many of our residents suffer from chronic respiratory conditions that are not related to COVID-19) and will increase consumer confusion and nursing home staff burden. Instead there should be one standardized COVID-19 focused reporting form for universal reporting to states, localities, federal agencies and the public.”
