The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) praised federal legislation aimed at bringing infection control specialists into health care settings, including nursing homes, ahead of a hearing discussing the bill on Tuesday.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce discussed seven bills introduced to provide health care provider, caregiver and patient support, among them H.R. 5602, the Bolstering Infectious Outbreaks (BIO) Preparedness Workforce Act of 2021.
The bill, introduced on Oct. 15 by Reps. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) and David McKinley (R-W.Va.), establishes a loan repayment program for infection preventionists if they serve in a qualified role for at least three years, the text states.
A qualified individual would spend 50% or more of his or her time devoted to “bio-preparedness and response activities,” according to the bill.
In September, Biden-Harris Administration announced a $2.1 billion investment geared toward infection prevention and control activities, with $500 million to be used in the staffing, training and deployment of state-based nursing home and long-term care “strike teams,” according to a statement issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC intended these infection control teams to be rolled out this month, with funding made available through the American Rescue Plan Act and CDC’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement, according to a statement issued by the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (AMDA) earlier this month.
“This shortage was a problem before the pandemic,” Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) said during the hearing. “But COVID and the strains it placed on community hospitals, simply laid bare the problems that can occur without this type of expertise — inappropriate antibiotic use and increased hospital infections.”
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases, said more than 80% of U.S. counties lack infection disease (ID) physicians.
In Alabama and more rural communities, facilities have “little to no access” to these specialists.
Marrazzo, who provided witness testimony in favor of the bill to the congressional committee, also serves as a board member of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA).
“Despite the urgent need for a robust bio preparedness and ID workforce, the pipeline for ID physicians lags behind all other specialties in 2020,” said Marrazzo. “The average salary for ID physicians are below nearly all other medical specialties and below general internal medicine.”
Early intervention by an infectious disease specialist is also linked to “significantly lower” mortality and hospital readmission rates, Marrazzo told the committee, shorter hospital stays, ICU length of stay and Medicare costs.
Yet the specialization requires two to three more years of training and an added average $200,000 in student debt per trainee. The specialty is not “financially feasible” for health care students, Marrazzo said.
“This workforce act will address this problem by providing loan repayment for these professionals with an explicit goal of workforce diversification,” explained Marrazzo. “Every community needs a strong workforce to mount rapid effective responses to ID threats, train staff, develop and update surge capacity plans, train healthcare personnel, purchase and manage protective equipment, optimally manage patient flow, perform infection prevention and oversee antimicrobial stewardship.”
In some cases, the lack of an infectious disease specialist affected COVID-19 therapeutics availability — ID physicians were needed to figure out the best way to administer treatment.
AHCA/NCAL, representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country, said it is “encouraged” to see the Energy and Commerce committee support direct caregivers through the legislation.
“Our elderly population is growing rapidly, and we must be prepared to meet the increased demand for long term care services. Establishing a strong workforce is an essential component of this process,” Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA/NCAL, said in a statement regarding the committee hearing.
Companies featured in this article:
AHCA/NCAL, Infectious Disease Society of America, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases
