WASHINGTON — Responding to the ravages of COVID-19 in nursing homes, senior Democratic senators Tuesday introduced legislation to increase nurse staffing, improve infection control and bolster inspections.
The bill, from a group led by Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, is part of a broader overhaul of long-term care just getting started. Separately, President Joe Biden is seeking $400 billion to expand home and community based care as an alternative to nursing homes in the giant domestic agenda bill Democrats are pushing in Congress. His COVID relief law already provided a down payment.
Nursing homes and long-term care facilities house a tiny proportion of the U.S. population but they’re estimated to account for about 3 in 10 deaths from COVID-19. Vaccines have finally brought relief, dramatically reducing cases and deaths, but concerns remain.
Some of the main provisions of the Senate bill would:
- Raise salaries and benefits for nursing home staff by giving states the option of an increase in federal Medicaid matching funds, available over six years. Low wages in the nursing home industry make for constant turnover, a critical problem even before the pandemic. The bill also starts a process for setting minimum staffing thresholds.
- Require nursing homes to have an infection prevention and control specialist.
- Require nursing homes to have a registered nurse available 24 hours a day, instead of the current eight hours.
- Bolster state inspections of nursing homes, and add more low-performing facilities to a “special focus” program that helps them improve quality.
- Forbid nursing homes from requiring residents and families to agree in advance to arbitration, thereby waiving their rights to go to court over disputes involving care.
The Congressional Budget Office has not put a price tag on the bill, but it could reach tens of billions of dollars.
