Federal nursing home staffing mandate would be ‘disastrous’ for Nebraska, officials say

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Gov. Jim Pillen is joining in criticism of a proposed federal nursing home rule that’s causing an uproar in Nebraska.

The rule, introduced in September by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would require that long-term care residents receive a minimum number of daily nursing hours.

It would also require a registered nurse to be available 24/7 at nursing homes.

Jalene Carpenter, president and CEO of the Nebraska Health Care Association, said that’s a nearly impossible task with current workforce shortages.

“In the rural parts of our state, this is going to be disastrous,” she said. “If this rule goes through as is, it will result in immediate closures. It will result in a massive desert when it comes to access to care for seniors. ”

The rule would also require a certain staff-to-patient ratio, which Capenter said is a “one-size-fits-all” approach and doesn’t take into account individual patient needs.

She believes CMS had good intentions of improving quality of care but said this isn’t the right path.

“It is in fact a path to closure,” she said. “And in Nebraska, we have a really strong system already that says you have to staff to meet the needs of residents.”

Pillen, along with 14 other Republican governors and Nebraska’s congressional delegation, is opposing the mandate.

“This is not only unrealistic, but it also threatens to unravel the work we have done, while harming the seniors, elderly and disabled it’s designed to help,” the governors said in a letter to the Biden administration.

Officials said that in the last three years, nearly two dozen nursing homes and assisted living communities in Nebraska have been forced to close due to lack of staffing.

Currently, there are 1,300 open RN positions in Nebraska.

Kaitlin Clegg, administrator of Sumner Place in Lincoln, also said there’s nine counties in the state that don’t even have one RN.

She said this mandate would force seniors to move to new facilities, hours away from their families.

Clegg said the proposal might be more feasible if licensed practical nurses, or LPNs, were included in the requirement.

She said LPNs don’t have as much training but can provide similar levels of care.

“They’re creating this mandate, but they’re not creating more workers,” she said. “So, you have to find these nurses, but where do you find them if we don’t have them?”

Clegg believes that making education for health care sciences more accessible is a better solution. That would not only address the shortage, she said, but also improve care.

The comment period for the proposed rule ends Monday.

If you’d like to share your input, you can submit comments online or mail them directly to CMS headquarters at:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS–3442–P
P.O. Box 8016
Baltimore, MD 21244–8016