News Digest: Biden order ties medicare rates and turnover
Biden-Harris Administration Roadmap to Support Good Jobs
…The roadmap focuses on four priorities: 1) connecting people to good jobs; 2) ensuring we have the skilled, diverse workforce for our transformational investments; 3) boosting education and training efforts so every community can meet its foundational labor needs; and 4) creating good quality, family-sustaining jobs, including union jobs.
…4. Boosting Job Quality to Promote Recruitment and Retention: Actions to achieve these goals include: HHS will propose minimum staffing standards at nursing homes—promoting job quality and staffing among care workers—based on its research into the level and type of staffing needed to ensure safe and quality care.
House, White. “Biden-Harris Administration Roadmap to Support Good Jobs.” The White House, May 2023, www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/16/biden-harris-administration-roadmap-to-support-good-jobs.
White House Order Aims to Tie Nursing Home Medicare Payments to Worker Retention
The White House today announced that President Biden will enact “the most sweeping set of executive actions to improve care in history,” which will include directives related to nursing home staffing and Medicare payments.
Specifically, Biden’s executive order will direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “build on the minimum staffing standards for nursing homes and condition a portion of Medicare payments on how well a nursing home retains workers,” according to a White House fact sheet.
This set of actions from the White House comes a little more than a year after Biden put forward a sweeping set of proposed nursing home reforms, including a federal minimum staffing standard. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is still in the process of formulating a proposed staffing mandate, to be released later this year.
Mullaney, Tim. “White House Order Aims to Tie Nursing Home Medicare Payments to Worker Retention.” Skilled Nursing News, 18 Apr. 2023, skillednursingnews.com/2023/04/white-house-order-raises-potential-of-tying-nursing-home-medicare-payments-to-worker-retention.
Surprise Biden order ‘punishing’ for nursing home providers
An executive order signed by President Joe Biden Tuesday afternoon will trigger broad, cabinet-level activities intended to improve nursing home and other caregiving jobs and hold providers accountable for workforce quality.
The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living praised the administration’s goal of supporting long-term care workers as the sector continues to face a historic workforce crisis. But leaders remain leery of a staffing mandate and other punitive approaches.
The administration’s fact sheet said the connection between Medicare payments and turnover would build on a still-unpublished staffing mandate.
Marselas, Kimberly. “Surprise Biden Order ‘Punishing’ for Nursing Home Providers.” McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, 20 Apr. 2023, www.mcknights.com/news/surprise-biden-order-punishing-for-nursing-home-providers.
‘Access Crisis Unfolding’: Nursing Home Operators, Advocates Warn of Dire Effects from Biden’s Order on Staffing
President Joe Biden’s executive order that aims to implement minimum staffing standards and tie Medicare payments to staff retention drew frustration from nursing home industry operators and advocates, who said that the well meaning directives would likely compound the staffing crisis and lead to closures unless policies are aimed at resolving its root causes, and not penalizing nursing homes.
Without policies and solutions – and funding – that allows for better paying jobs in the sector, the White House position may not serve to improve the quality of care either, they argue.
However, in signing the executive order Tuesday afternoon, Biden said funding wasn’t forthcoming.
Siddiqi, Zahida. “‘Access Crisis Unfolding’: Nursing Home Operators, Advocates Warn of Dire Effects From Biden’s Order on Staffing.” Skilled Nursing News, 19 Apr. 2023, skillednursingnews.com/2023/04/access-crisis-unfolding-nursing-home-operators-advocates-warn-of-dire-effects-from-bidens-order-on-staffing.
New Biden executive order would tie Medicare rates to turnover
President Joe Biden signed a massive executive order Tuesday morning that includes several measures intended to improve access to long-term care and bolster job protections for those who work in skilled nursing. Among them are calls to expand on an as-yet undisclosed staffing mandate and tie Medicare payments to retention.
An early morning announcement noted that many workers providing long-term care “find themselves in low-paying jobs with few benefits,” leading to high turnover. It directs the Department of Health and Human Services to consider issuing “several” regulations and guidance documents to “build on the minimum staffing standards for nursing homes and condition a portion of Medicare payments on how well a nursing home retains workers.”
Biden first proposed a minimum staffing standard for nursing homes in February 2022. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services earlier this month delayed its unveiling but said it still expected to publish a new rule “later this spring.”
Marselas, Kimberly. “New Biden Executive Order Would Tie Medicare Rates to Turnover.” McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, 19 Apr. 2023, www.mcknights.com/news/breaking-new-biden-executive-order-would-tie-medicare-rates-to-turnover.
