‘Imperative’ to finalize staffing rule this year, dozens of House members tell CMS

More than a quarter of the House of Representatives signed a letter last week urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to move forward with its plan to institute a nationwide staffing mandate for nursing homes.

They called for the fiscal 2024 payment rule — which is expected to be officially proposed this spring — to include a proposal for “strong mandatory minimum staffing standards” and said it would be “imperative” to finalize requirements this year. The letter, crafted by Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), was signed by 113 Democrats.

The letter was dated March 13 but was not publicized by Dogget’s office until later last week. While acknowledging staffing challenges in the sector, the signers urged CMS officials to act anyway.

“CMS should adopt strong nursing staff-to-resident ratios to ensure workers are not overburdened and unable to meet their patients’ needs,” they wrote. “it is clear that chronic understaffing contributes to high rates of stress, injury, and burnout among nursing assistants, and ultimately to high rates of turnover. Thus, we believe that creating a robust staffing standard will also go a long way towards improving the quality of nursing home jobs, which in turn will actually help attract more workers and resolve current workforce shortages in this industry.”