With federal staffing proposal near, states also progressing toward minimums

State lawmakers are showing an appetite for mandatory healthcare staffing rules, with new nursing home-specific or tough hospital proposals on the table in at least four additional states.

CMS announced last year it would pursue a national minimum staffing level for nursing homes to ensure resident safety and quality of care. A month later, the American Health Care Association issued a report showing that it would cost up to $10 billion per year (since increased to $11 billion) and require nursing homes to hire approximately 187,000 nurses. The report found that just 6% of nursing homes had 4.1 hours of care per patient per day, a figure floated for at least a decade after an academic study.