A loud and clear message on staffing mandates

We’ve heard a lot of chatter about nursing home staffing mandates in the last few months.

In one corner, we’ve got consumers and union reps angry that local ratios for skilled nursing facilities haven’t been enacted or enforced yet. Forget that state officials have backed off the very laws they championed in acknowledgment of the fact that, in some places, there is simply no one to hire.4

Then entering the ring, we had a bipartisan group of senators from mostly rural states call on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to press pause on its expected proposal to institute nationwide minimums. 

LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan delivered a gift of sorts to the agency on Monday in the form of a six-point “common sense” plan for implementation of any staffing minimum.

The key message here cuts through the doldrums: To implement a wise and effective mandate, CMS must work with Congress and providers to get both the timing and the funding right.