President Biden included a nursing home initiative in the State of the Union Address last night. Here is the full White House Statement about the content of the State of the Union Address. (It’s about halfway into the statement, under the title, “Protect Seniors and other nursing home residents by cracking down on unsafe nursing homes.”)
The three primary components of the initiative are:
- Staffing – CMS will conduct a year-long study on staffing ratios in nursing homes, which, CMS officials acknowledge, are not just a number; there are other important considerations. They expect to issue a proposed regulation (with a comment period) after that.
- Special Focus Facilities and increased funding for state survey agencies to identify “substandard” performing nursing homes.
- Ownership Transparency (with a focus on private equity)
Here is Katie Smith Sloan’s statement on the President’s “FACT SHEET” on “Protecting Seniors and People with Disabilities by Improving Safety and Quality of Care in the Nation’s Nursing Homes
CMS has invited LeadingAge and other stakeholder organizations, to work with them in the implementation of the work. Members are invited to work with LeadingAge to develop the LeadingAge response and to submit their own input to CMS. Send your comments/ideas/questions to Katie at ksloan@leadingage.org and Ruth Katz at rkatz@leadingage.org. Please cc Rachel@leadingagekansas.org or Debra@leadingagekansas.org.
