On May 18th, Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tim Scott (R-SC) re-introduced the Ensuring Seniors’ Access to Quality Care Act, a bill to fix the two-year Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) training lockout. This legislation is a companion to the House bill by the same name that was introduced by Representatives Ron Estes (R-KS) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) on May 11, 2023. Currently, nursing homes assessed civil monetary penalties above a certain level on their annual survey automatically lose their authority to train staff to be CNAs for two years. Both the Senate and House bills would allow providers that have demonstrated their return to compliance to re-start training programs rather than having to sit out a full two years. It would also allow nursing home operators access to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) to give employers a greater ability to screen potential candidates. For additional information, see LeadingAge’s press statement.
