The House Ways and Means Committee passed the Protecting American Seniors’ Access to Care Act (H.R. 7513) by a vote of 26 to 17 on March 6. Introduced by Representatives Michelle Fischbach (R-MN) and Greg Pence (R-IN), the bill would prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing the federal minimum staffing rule that was transmitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review and approval on March 1.

The Protecting American Seniors’ Access to Care Act is a companion to H.R. 5796, the Protecting Rural Seniors’ Access to Care Act, also led by Fischbach and Pence. However, the committee-passed bill does not contain a provision in the original version to create a nursing home workforce advisory panel, which was removed for procedural reasons.

LeadingAge worked closely with the Committee and its members to help secure passage of this bill.  On February 29, LeadingAge teamed up with more than 1,000 national, state, and individual care organizations in sending a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee expressing our collective support for legislation to halt the federal staffing mandate. That letter was mentioned in Chairman Jason Smith’s (R-MO) opening statement and was officially submitted into the Congressional record by Fischbach.

On March 5, LeadingAge also sent a letter from president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan to all members of the House Ways and Means Committee requesting support and passage of the Protecting American Seniors Access to Care Act.

This advocacy and engagement clearly resonated with Committee members, many of whom echoed the same concerns LeadingAge members have brought to their attention. Smith noted in his opening statement that “without access to more staff, nursing homes—particularly those in rural areas—will have no choice but to reduce the number of residents they admit or shut down all together. In total, 280,000 seniors could lose a spot in their local nursing home.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) who supported Committee passage of the bill after expressing her grave concerns regarding the implementation of the proposed rule. “I must speak out about the rushed nature of the proposed rule and the unrealistic labor expectations on nursing homes when there is a massive health care workforce shortage throughout the medical field … This proposed rule does not do anything to support nursing home facilities with increasing the wages for its staff, which would help improve retention of health care workers in this field,” she stated.

In agreement with Sewell’s remarks, Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA) noted that Congress needs to get engaged in workforce development to produce a health care workforce that can actually meet the needs of residents, particularly in rural areas.  He also made an important observation that private equity firms in the health care sector is a separate issue that needs to be addressed, but proceeding with the proposed rule will simply result in nursing home closures that will be devasting to rural communities.

Other themes that were discussed during the bill’s consideration included the need to address Medicaid reimbursements and increase visa slots for foreign born workers.

Finally, in addressing the claim that the minimum staffing rule is an unfunded mandate, Representative Danny Davis (D-IL) proclaimed, “What do we do about unfunded mandates? We fund them! What do we do about the shortages? We provide training for them!” On that, we agree.

However, Congress must take these actions before the Administration implements a federal minimum staffing mandate. Until then, LeadingAge will continue to support the Protecting American Seniors’ Access to Care Act and look forward to seeing it taken up and passed by the full House of Representatives.

For a chronological rundown of developments re CMS proposed staffing mandates , see our serial post, Nursing Home Staffing Ratios Are Coming: LeadingAge Is On the Case.