I. FOLLOWING THE NARRATIVE: A quick summary of national media trends last week.
(* indicates that LeadingAge is featured in the story.)
Democrats’ continued push to bring Build Back Better to the Senate floor for a vote before Christmas is spurring coverage of what might remain in the bill. LeadingAge’s Dec. 7th telepresser brought some attention to BBB’s aging services-related provisions. In addition to a continued focus on vaccine mandates’ impact in long-term care and aging services’ workforce challenges, other topics garnering ink included passage of a bill to stop Medicare payment cuts and an investigation into CMS’ nursing home deficiencies appeal process.
Build Back Better & Medicare Sequestration
- *Home Health Care News: Senior Care Groups Urge Senate to Pass Build Back Better ‘Without Shaving Off $1’
- *McKnight’s Home Care: Senior Service Providers Urge Senate to Pass Build Back Better
- *McKnight’s Senior Living: Aging services leaders call on Senate to pass Build Back Better ‘without shaving off one dollar’
- *McKnight’s Long-Term Care News: Unfinished business, unfunded mandates stress LTC provider groups as Build Back Better trudges along
- *Skilled Nursing News: Nursing Home Provisions Still Intact But Unfunded in Senate’s Build Back Better Legislation
- *Bloomberg Law News: Senior Care Provisions Drive Support for Biden Spending Plan
- *The Detroit Free Press: Scaled-back social services bill could still be vital to Michigan home care workers
- The Washington Post: Democrats lobby Manchin and Sinema — politely — as they try to save their priorities for the domestic policy package
- The Detroit News: What Biden’s plan to boost home care services means for the disability community
- McKnights Long-Term Care News: ‘Very good deal’ in House would give providers big relief from Medicare cuts
- McKnights Long-Term Care News: With billions in Medicare provider cuts looming, Congress stalls on solution
Vaccine Mandates and Legal Challenges, Boosters, and Omicron
- The New York Times: How Philadelphia Achieved High Vaccination Rate for Health Workers
- Reuters: Low staff vaccination tied to nursing home COVID deaths; experimental vaccine targets multiple coronaviruses
- News5 Cleveland: About 40% of Ohio’s nursing home staff are unvaccinated; mandates blocked for now in court
- McKnights Long-Term Care News: Providers embracing reprieve as staff vaccine deadline passes unenforced
- The Texas Tribune: With the federal vaccine mandate for health care workers halted, Texas nursing homes dodge furloughs and fines
- *McKnights Senior Living: OSHA COVID-19 workplace safety standard set to expire while vaccine mandates await legal rulings
- NBC News: Nursing home residents more likely to die of Covid if staff is unvaccinated, study says
- *The Philadelphia Inquirer: Are nursing home residents getting badly needed COVID boosters? Here’s why it’s hard to tell
- *The White House: Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Official
- Skilled Nursing News: Minnesota Plans To Train, Deploy 1,000 Long-Term Care CNAs Within 2 Months
- Associated Press: COVID-era nursing home staff crunch hurting hospitals, too
II. Other Clips that Influenced the Week: LeadingAge is a sought-out, reliable source for multiple trade and national media outlets (see that coverage posted in our LeadingAge Press Room). Other key clips that shaped the narrative last week:
- The New York Times: How Nursing Homes’ Worst Offenses Are Hidden From the Public
- *Senior Housing News: Rampant Consumer Confusion Creates Opportunities for Senior Living Innovation
- U.S. News & World Report: Visa Backlog Blocks Nursing Help in U.S., but Progress Seen
- Bloomberg Law: Aides’ Training Waiver Must End for Nursing Home Safety, CMS Told
- The Hill: It shouldn’t be this hard to grow old in America
- Healthcare Finance: HHS shows 63-fold increase in Medicare telehealth use during the pandemic
- The Hill: To save our healthcare system, we must think beyond doctors and nurses
- McKnights Long-Term Care News: Long-term care providers get help from National Guard
III. What’s On Our Radar — this week’s likely priorities:
- Monitoring Build Back Better progress in Senate with simultaneous Congressional advocacy and media push. Goals: boosting money for affordable housing, preserving current aging services-related provisions while removing current nursing home staffing provisions
- Monitoring rules, guidance and legal challenges to vaccine mandates
IV. National Statements & Products (all posted on the Press Room page):
