Federal Nursing Staff Ratio

This spring, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced they would go forward implementing a first-ever federal staffing ratio mandate for nursing care facilities. This is happening despite the fact that a report commissioned by CMS itself found that there is no single staffing level that guarantees quality care. Nursing homes across western Minnesota have already been forced to close because of the current nursing staff shortage, like the one in Arlington, who after working to overcome staffing challenges for a year finally had to make the difficult decision to close their doors and relocate their residents. This rule will only cause more closures without helping any of our rural care facilities staff up the way they need.

Of course we all want the best quality care for our seniors. And we want fully staffed nursing homes. But implementing a one-size-fits-none plan is not going to help facilities or their residents. As I have urged them multiple times, the Administration needs to focus their attention on working with stakeholders on programs and policies that support recruitment and retention to solve the ongoing nursing shortage in this country. I have introduced a Congressional Review Act to overturn this rule.

Ensuring Seniors' Access to Quality Care

House Republicans are working on ways to improve the nursing staff shortage. We recognize that it needs to be easier for these care facilities to hire and train qualified staff, not harder. That is why I was proud to sponsor the Ensuring Seniors' Access to Quality Care Act, which would repeal a current "lock-out" for certain facilities to conduct in-house Certified Nurse Aid education.

Currently, if a nursing home receives a civil monetary penalty of $12,924, the operators are prohibited from conducting CNA training for two years, even if the deficiencies did not result in immediate risk to resident safety or arise as the result of resident harm from abuse or neglect. This leads to students taking on the burden of finding and paying for an education program at a community college, which may not be near home or work. This "lock-out" has impacted 25% of Minnesota nursing homes, which desperately need to recruit and retain qualified staff.

Of course, facilities would need to prove that any deficiencies were not caused by or resulted in harm to residents before continuing with training. Following that, this bill would remove the cost burden for students and would enable nursing homes to build their own pipelines of skilled nursing staff. 

Telehealth Waivers Set to Expire

If anything good came out of the pandemic, it was the expansion of telehealthcare. Increasing telehealth options has been so beneficial to Western Minnesota, as people who would normally drive hours for an appointment are now able to talk with doctors and practitioners from the comfort of their own home. Unfortunately, the telehealth waivers are set to expire at the end of this year. This year, I cosponsored the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act to address this problem. 

This bill pushes the expiration date for another year, while we work on making certain components permanent. It also delays the in-person visit requirement for mental health telehealth eligibility and allows providers to be reimbursed for audio-only telehealth visits. But the most significant update in this bill removes the geographic restrictions initially included in the waiver. That way, when it comes time to harvest your crops or if you would like to spend some of your beautiful Minnesota summer by a lake, but you are worried about missing an appointment that is more than 60 miles away, you can still keep your healthcare appointments via telehealth.

This bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee and I look forward to it coming before the Rules Committee and to the House Floor for a vote.

Senior Care Roundtable

I talked about all of these issues and more when I participated in a Senior Care Roundtable at the Hutchinson Health Clinic earlier this year.

Conversations like this one are the best - and my favorite - way for me to best represent Minnesota's Seventh District when I am considering legislature, particularly on the Ways and Means Committee. I so value the input and ideas I heard from everyone in the Hutchinson area.

Thank you for reading!

fischbach.house.gov

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