On April 22, 2024, the Centers for Medicare, and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Minimum Staffing Standards for long-term care facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting final rule.
The final rule requires the following:
- Total nurse staffing standard of 3.48 hours per resident per day
- Ratio requirements for registered nurses (0.55 hours per resident per day)
- Ratio of nurse aides (2.45 hours per resident per day)
- Requirement for at least one registered nurse to be onsite 24 hours a day.
AHCA /INCAL is opposed and argues that long-term care employers are already grappling with a shortage of clinical workers and won’t be able to afford the administration’s requirements.
“It is unconscionable that the administration is finalizing this rule given our nation’s changing demographics and growing caregiver shortage,” Mark Parkinson, president, and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), which represents over 14,00 nursing homes and long-term care facilities, said in a Monday statement. “Issuing a final rule that demands hundreds of thousands of additional caregivers when there’s a nationwide shortfall of nurses just creates an impossible task for providers. This unfunded mandate doesn’t magically solve the nursing crisis.”
Stay tuned for more information and clarification on the final rule. AHCA will continue to use momentum against the mandates among both Democrats and Republicans to develop legislative alternatives.
BELOW IS A PDF handout about the rule: