LeadingAge and AHCA Announce Legislative Effort in Response to Pandemic

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Jeff Bostic

On Monday, LeadingAge and the American Health Care Association (AHCA) released a federal legislative proposal designed to allow the nursing home sector to make key changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these issues were evident for years before COVID-19 but were never fully addressed by policymakers. Through the Care For Our Seniors Act, AHCA and LeadingAge are calling on lawmakers once again to help resolve systemic challenges, as well as reflecting on ways nursing home providers themselves can improve.

The Care For Our Seniors Act has four main reform principles with policy proposals in each of the key areas:

• Clinical: Enhance the quality of care in nursing homes by developing clearer standards for infection preventionists, requiring that each nursing home have a registered nurse on-staff, 24 hours per day, and requiring a minimum 30-day supply of personal protective equipment in all nursing homes.
• Workforce: Strengthen and support our frontline caregivers by implementing a multi-phase tiered approach to attract, retain and develop more long-term care professionals leveraging federal, state, and academic institutions.
• Oversight: Implement improvements establishing a more resident-driven system by developing an effective oversight system and processes that support better care and protect residents. This would include implementing a process to help turn around or close facilities that are chronically poor performers and adding customer satisfaction to the government’s five-star rating system to help monitor the quality of a facility for family members and guide consumer choice.
• Structural: Modernize nursing homes by conducting a national study on how to shift to more private rooms, which promote resident privacy, autonomy, and dignity, as well as support infection control best practices.

Below, you can navigate through overview documents to learn more about the details of the recommendations:

• Overview: Care For Our Seniors Act
• One-Pager: Care For Our Seniors Act
• 24-Hour Registered Nurse
• Customer Satisfaction
• Infection Preventionists
• Minimum PPE
• Poor-Performing Nursing Homes
• Private Rooms
• Survey Improvements
• Workforce Strategies