Nursing Home Residents Need Your Help. Keep the Minimum Staffing Standard!

Nursing home residents need your help! In the coming days, Congress will be considering legislation and a joint resolution that would prevent the implementation of the recently issued minimum staffing standard in nursing homes. This extreme legislation would not only prevent the implementation of this rule, but would permanently bar the federal government from ever issuing a rule requiring safe staffing in nursing homes.

Since the staffing rule was proposed by the Biden Administration, the nursing home industry has been spending millions of dollars to oppose its implementation. They are not giving up.

The final rule issued by the Biden Administration is a modest staffing standard, that would affect mostly the worst homes in the United States. The rule is targeted at those homes that provide the least amount of care. Additionally, the rule requires that there be increased transparency in Medicaid spending and that nursing homes use evidence-based, data driven methods to assess the needs of their residents. The extreme legislation in Congress would stop these needed reforms and prevent the federal government from ever issuing a similar rule.

Please stand with nursing home residents and workers and tell your members of Congress to reject any efforts to prevent the implementation of the minimum staffing rule in nursing homes.

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Dear [Decision Maker],

As a constituent, I am writing to ask you to oppose HJ Res. 139, H.R. 7513, S.3410, and any other effort to prevent the implementation of a minimum staffing standard in nursing homes.

As you are aware, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published a final rule requiring that all residents receive a minimum amount of direct care each day. This rule is the most significant increase in protections for nursing home residents in decades. However, some members of Congress have introduced legislation and a joint resolution that would not only bar the implementation of the rule but prevent CMS from ever issuing a rule on staffing. We cannot let this protection be removed from nursing home residents.

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Over a hundred studies have shown that higher staffing rates in nursing homes result in better health outcomes for nursing home residents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing homes with higher staffing levels had fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths.   Understaffing in nursing homes is the primary cause of harm to residents and workers.

There is a job quality crisis in nursing homes. Nursing home workers are underpaid and overworked. Currently, according to data from CMS, the average annual turnover of direct care staff is 53%. We must require facilities to create better jobs. The staffing rule would require nursing homes to direct the tens of billions of taxpayer dollars they receive annually to staffing and not profits.

Importantly, the final rule targets the worst-performing homes in the United States. These homes provide the lowest amount of care for residents, resulting in poor quality. The proposed standard will have little to no effect on homes that are currently well-staffed and providing a higher quality of care.

Further, it will be several years before the standards fully go into effect, giving nursing homes sufficient time to meet the minimal standards. Facilities that may have difficulty meeting the standard despite good faith efforts, will be eligible for hardship exemptions.

These extreme bills and the joint resolution would bar CMS from ever issuing a rule on much-needed transparency in Medicaid spending, requiring nursing homes to use evidence-based data-driven methods to assess residents' needs, and providing other critical protections for nursing home residents and workers.

The final rule was issued after a rigorous regulatory process, including a request for information, a staffing study, and a thorough comment period. Congress should not step in at the last minute and permanently prevent such important protections from going into effect.

Stand with nursing home residents, their families, and nursing home workers and reject any efforts to prevent the implementation of the minimum staffing rule.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]
[Your Email]