Ignoring the staffing challenges facing nursing homes since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the Biden Administration is proposing a staffing mandate rejected by the Obama Administration in 2016. This one-size-fits-all approach treats all of the over-15,000 nursing homes in the United States exactly the same, without any recognition of existing quality or local job markets. New Hampshire already has one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates and simply does not have enough available licensed staff for all health care providers, who are all competing to hire those few caregivers available.
Effectively this mandate would force New Hampshire facilities to further deny admission to residents (one county-run facility already has a wait list of over 100 prospective residents), in order to boost their staff-to-resident ratios, or use more out-of-state nurse staffing agencies (even the state itself already has to spend taxpayer millions on such agencies to meet care needs) at bankrupting cost, putting strangers by the bedside. Many facilities would close.
Astonishingly, the proposed mandate doesn't even acknowledge the existence, or valuable role, of licensed practical nurses (LPNs), though there are more LPNs in nursing homes than registered nurses!
This is just one of many, many problems with this proposed mandate. The Biden Administration estimates it would cost nursing homes $4.06 billion a year (the national accounting firm of CliftonLarsonAllen LLP pegs it at $6.8 billion annually), yet is only providing a one-time "workforce investment" of $75 million (a measly $5,000 per nursing home).
Make your voice heard, and let the Biden Administration know you oppose this new rule that would destroy long-term care in the Granite State. For a link to comment, go to https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
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