Lawmakers, union attack AHCA’s opposition to nursing home staffing mandate

Two members of Congress joined national union leaders Thursday in accusing nursing home owners of diverting federal funds away from patient care in what was ostensibly a rally in support of a federal staffing mandate.

In calling on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to hasten its adoption of a first-ever national staffing minimum to support beleaguered frontline workers already in place, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) also painted nursing home owners and their top advocacy organization, the American Health Care Association, as “the opposition.”

She said AHCA had spent $3.9 million lobbying Congress on the staffing mandate issue last year. AHCA leaders say they have embraced the idea of increasing staff, but they also have cautioned that mandating hiring when the sector remains down more than 200,000 workers from its pre-COVID levels could lead to disaster for some facilities.