As the nursing home workforce crisis continues to have far-reaching consequences for settings along the care continuum, associations outside of long-term care are adding their support for more permanent solutions.
The American Hospital Association (AHA), for one, is the latest to throw its weight behind the Building America’s Health Care Workforce Act, a bill that extends training flexibilities and competency requirements for temporary nurse aides (TNAs) in the nursing home field.
Stacey Hughes, executive vice president of the association, wrote a letter dated Nov. 9 to sponsors of the legislation, U.S. Reps. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, formally supporting House Resolution 7744.
“At a time when health care providers are navigating the unprecedented financial challenges caused by workforce shortages and rising inflation, your legislation would help provide much needed stability and access to care,” Hughes said in the letter.
AHA represents nearly 5,000 hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, including 700 SNFs.
The legislation would allow TNAs to stay in their roles an additional 24 months following the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency; these extra hours would count toward 75-hour, state-approved training and competency evaluation programs.
Currently, the PHE is set to end in January.
Without a permanent solution to the TNA program, states have had to get waiver requests approved by the federal government — but temporary extensions are still tied to the PHE.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) originally announced back in April that it had planned to phase out the waiver. Anyone hired prior to June 7 would have until Oct. 7 to meet testing requirements, CMS had said.
But in August CMS issued updated guidance that provided opportunities for individual facility and statewide or county waivers to get additional time to certify TNAs when testing and training barriers were apparent.
Other parts of the care continuum, including health systems, have taken notice of the nursing home staffing crisis as hospitals report months of discharge delays – SNFs have been restricting admissions as operators struggle to build up their workforce.
The rejection rate in skilled nursing facilities jumped to 88% through the first quarter of 2022, according to data from WellSky, a health and community care technology company. The rejection rate was 65% at the beginning of the year.
Six in 10 facilities have had to limit new admissions due to staffing shortages, according to an August report released by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL).
The industry is still facing a 14% downturn in staffing compared to pre-pandemic numbers, a loss of 223,700 caregivers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) found.
In a September panel at Skilled Nursing News’ Rethink event, large health systems like Henry Ford Health and Advocate Aurora Health discussed shifting relationships with the skilled nursing sector and how staffing hurdles and admission restrictions play a role in that relationship moving forward.
Beth Ferguson, post-acute SNF network manager for Castell, an Intermountain Healthcare Company and panelist, called out government agencies as well while recognizing different parts of the care continuum can combine their influence to move Congress.
“We will be one voice when needed, and that can be very powerful,” Ferguson said during the panel.
Companies featured in this article:
Advocate Aurora Health, American Health Care Association, American Hospital Association, Henry Ford Health System, Intermountain Health, National Center for Assisted Living
