Defiant Sloan to nursing home critics: Address funding to tackle staffing challenge

The leader of one of the nation’s largest skilled nursing organizations Tuesday pushed back against a recent popular narrative about understaffing, reiterating concerns about Medicaid pay that continues to undercut provider efforts to recruit and retain workers. 

“Medicaid is woefully inadequate in every state, doesn’t cover the cost of care, and when you are not covering the cost of care, you’re not enabling the provider to pay their staff what they should be paid,” LeadingAge CEO and President Katie Smith Sloan told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Tuesday.

“We’ve been advocating for quite a while the importance of reimbursing so that nursing homes can pay a livable wage to their staff so they don’t have to work two jobs. Until we address the funding issue we will continue to be challenged.”

Sloan’s comments came days after a USA Today investigation into nursing home staffing levels drew swift rebukes from other nursing home providers groups, who called the coverage unfair, reliant on the wrong policies and woefully lacking in nuance.