A federal minimum staffing standard would introduce new compliance thresholds anchored to PBJ data, with direct implications for five-star staffing ratings, value-based purchasing performance, and facility operations.
A possible escape from the nursing home staffing mandate?
Yet another week came and went without the much-awaited unveiling [of the staffing mandate] announcement.
The big question seems to be how hard and fast it will come. The hope inside AHCA is that an announcement doesn’t occur until well into June, or some other “late” date that would make it impossible to implement a new system by Jan. 1, 2024. That could buy as much as another 12 months’ time. The big prize then could be that a different administration might be on its way into the White House, and that could mean a whole new ballgame.
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, May 14, 2023
“CMS is working on and has fielded a staffing study and also put out a request for other sources of information to help us shape what staffing requirements look like,” Ling told Skilled Nursing News at the publication’s CLINICAL conference in Washington, D.C. “We all will look forward to when we’re able to publicly release and speak to some of the details.”
— Skilled Nursing News, April 23, 2023
Concerns continue after CMS delays staffing rule unveiling
Skilled nursing providers who had readied themselves for the unveiling of a national staffing mandate as part of the 2024 pay rule were left reading the tea leaves this week after federal regulators delayed their announcement.
“We hope this indicates that CMS is taking the time to thoughtfully consider how we marry policy with practicality,” the American Health Care Association told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Wednesday. “We all want to increase the long-term care workforce, but an enforcement approach will not solve this labor crisis and will only worsen access to care for seniors. We hope CMS is putting together a supportive approach.”
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, April 7, 2023
Providers have every right to dread what’s coming
It’s probably safe to say very few long-term care operators want to see staffing mandates.
But the time has come to face an unpleasant truth: They are coming.
Operators have just endured more than three years of COVID-19, which has been one of the greatest job disincentive programs ever created for long-term care. Hiring and keeping capable workers is a major challenge in the best of times. And what operators have experienced lately is anything but. So, facilities that can’t find enough workers are going to be forced to meet quotas? To say the logic here is a bit odd would be an extreme understatement.
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, April 8, 2023
CMS says final hours requirement still undecided on looming staffing rule
Jean Moody-Williams, deputy director of the CMS Center for Clinical Standards & Quality, said data related to time requirements “is still being collected and analyzed,” although she described a broader study related to creation of a nursing home staffing minimum as being complete. ”
The final report includes recommendations on potential barriers to, and unintended consequences of, implementing recommendations and also some of the cost implications [of a minimum staffing rule],” Moody-Williams said.
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, February 23, 2023
CMS completes minimum staffing study; targeting ‘onerous’ MA authorizations
[T]he Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has completed a study of minimum staffing standards for nursing homes and is considering its policy options.
Jean Moody-Williams, deputy director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, reported the CMS study to assess minimum staffing requirements — including a literature review, nursing home site visits and cost analysis — had been concluded. “The report includes recommendations of potential barriers to and unintended consequences of implementing the recommendations and cost implications,” Moody-Williams said. “We are currently reviewing it to determine our policy direction.”
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, January 25, 2023
CMS Readies Nursing Home Staffing Mandate Proposal, Reviews Study Recommendations
Qualitative components of the study are made up of primary data collected during site visits, like interviews, surveys and observation data. Meanwhile, quantitative analysis consists of Medicare Payroll-based Journal (PBJ) data, Minimum Data Set (MDS) and Medicare claims, the agency said.
There was no indication that the study would be released to the public, only that CMS plans to issue proposed federal minimum staffing requirements this spring. Once CMS issues its proposal for minimum staffing requirements, that proposal will undergo a notice-and-comment rulemaking process. This will be another opportunity for industry stakeholders to weigh in, the agency said.
— Skilled Nursing News, January 24, 2023
