Nursing homes will have to maintain minimum staffing levels under a Biden administration proposal despite furious lobbying from the industry, which says it will be too onerous amid a continuing labor shortage.

Biden administration officials said the first-ever national staffing rule would require nursing homes that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to provide a minimum of 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse per resident a day, and 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide per resident a day. A registered nurse would be required to be on-site at all times and nursing-home care assessments would be strengthened under the proposal.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that about 75% of nursing homes would have to strengthen staffing in their facilities under the proposal. The proposed staffing standard exceeds those existing in nearly all states.

The administration said it also plans to launch a national initiative to tackle the staffing shortage in the nursing-home industry. It will invest more than $75 million in financial incentives such as scholarships and tuition reimbursement to support staffing prospects for nursing homes.

  • @CADmonkey
    link
    21 year ago

    My other half works in a nursing home. They contract out their nursing, and that contractor pays $16 per hour for CNA’s. You could go nearly anywhere in the local city and make that much, or more, and you won’t have to clean the shit off grandpa.