March 5, 2026
LeadingAge Minnesota Testifies in Opposition to Legislation Attempting to Add Staffing Mandates to Senior Care
On March 5, 2026 by Erin Huppert
This week, the Senate Human Services Committee heard two bills that would adversely affect senior care services.
About the Legislation
SF 3844 would impose several mandates on assisted living communities, including installing AEDs and providing mandatory training on CPR; providing surveys and plans of corrections to prospective residents; and maintaining audit logs of summoning device response times (and producing upon request). An amendment was adopted that would allow MDH to approve any increases in housing or services above CPI-U, among other limitations. SF3844 was laid over for additional work within the committee’s jurisdiction.
SF 2972 would add duplicative disclosures and reporting requirements for assisted living communities and care centers upon changes in ownership; and prohibit practices like clinical interference, self-dealing or raiding assets for certain ownership types. An amendment was added by a bipartisan vote that would also add staffing standards to both care centers and assisted living facilities. These standards would be slightly different than those proposed by CMS in 2023 but would be equally difficult to achieve under current workforce shortages. SF2972 was passed to Judiciary for additional consideration.
Key Themes from the Hearing
- Consumer advocates are creating a narrative about confusing billing practices and using it as a proxy for unexplained rising costs in assisted living services.
- Lawmakers continue to confuse and conflate financial concepts like private equity, for-profit, and private investment. They also seem to have limited awareness about their own role in driving up the costs of care through unfunded mandates and fee hikes.
- Some committee members articulated concerns about the impact of SF2972, especially the staffing mandate provisions, but allowed the bill to move to its next stop for additional work.
LeadingAge Minnesota and its Imperative partner testified in opposition to both bills, as well as taking several questions (some hostile) from members of the committee. In our testimony and throughout the questioning, it was important to validate the experience of families and residents while providing factual and credible concerns on the policy proposals on the table.
If you would like to watch the hearing yourself, the recording is available here.
Opportunities for Action
The narrative presented on Wednesday is very troubling: residents and families are understandably concerned about the high costs of assisted living services. Furthermore, given our red tape-riddled regulatory system, it is also understandable that billing services may be unsatisfying to consumers.
LeadingAge Minnesota and its Imperative partner will continue to work with advocates and policymakers on reasonable approaches to elevating the resident experience, while also firmly pushing back against mandates that would decimate access to care, add onerous red tape, and further drive up costs for residents and families. As we continue to educate lawmakers:
- It may be time to review your organization’s billing practices. If you have questions about billing for assisted living services, contact Kelly Conrad at kconrad@leadingagemn.org or consider enrolling in our on-demand billing basics series for a refresher.
- Be sure you are signed up for our advocacy action alerts; an opportunity to contact lawmakers about our serious concerns with staffing standards and onerous mandates will be released later this week.