Biden Administration Announces New Nursing Home Reform Efforts
By Joseph Choi
The White House announced it will issue new measures to improve the "quality and safety" of nursing homes. Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic "highlighted the tragic impact of substandard conditions at nursing homes," the White House said it will propose new minimum standards of care through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the coming year, after assessing the level of care and staffing needed. Included in the new measures will be steps to reduce crowding and to reinforce protections against unnecessary medications and treatments. The Biden administration will also boost the government's ability to inspect nursing homes and issue penalties against unsafe facilities. President Biden is urging that caps on financial penalties against poor-performing nursing homes be increased to $1 million from $21,000. In addition, CMS will create a database of nursing home owners and operators, increasing transparency regarding any previous issues at facilities. Other steps will include policies to promote adequate nursing home staffing, including new efforts to make nurse aid training more affordable, potentially increasing salaries to boost workforce sustainability, and launching a nursing career pathway initiative with the Department of Labor. An ongoing study by the Department of Health and Human Services is investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic affected nursing homes. The first report from the study revealed that two out of five nursing home residents likely contracted COVID-19 in 2020 and said that mortality rates in nursing homes increased 5% overall between 2019 and 2020.
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