As Senate leaders focused on long-term care workforce issues at an April 16 Special Committee on Aging hearing, LeadingAge seized the opportunity to provide policymakers with numerous recommendations to address the major shortcomings of our country’s current patchwork approach to funding and regulating the care and support older adults and families need to age with dignity.

At the same time, LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan’s comments, provided in written for-the-record comments submitted for The Long-Term Care Workforce: Addressing Shortages and Improving the Profession hearing, also offer specific proposals to improve the Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act, introduced April 15 by Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

“Two looming regulatory changes—the nursing home staffing mandate and the workforce provisions of the Enhancing Access to Medicaid Services rule—if implemented as proposed, will negatively impact older adults’ and families’ ability to access needed care and services,” said Sloan in a press release. “America’s population is aging, and demand for care and services is growing. Caregiving is an urgent issue. 

If policymakers and other stakeholders are truly serious about addressing the chronic shortages that all care providers serving older adults—including our mission-driven, nonprofit members—are forced to navigate, bold, creative action on multiple fronts is needed. With the Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act, Senators Casey, Kaine, and Baldwin take a big step in the right direction. 

However, as experienced advocates with a rich history in helping to craft laws and regulations regarding the financing and delivery of long-term services and supports, we can say with confidence that the devil is truly in the details. We urge policymakers to pay attention to necessary refinements on particular issues such as funding for the education and training initiatives needed to build and sustain the workforce and investment in coordinated state and federal infrastructures to ensure programs achieve their desired goals.” 

Witnesses for the hearing (watch here) included:

• Nicholas Smith, Direct Support Professional/Behavioral Health Specialist Lead, SPIN, Philadelphia, PA
• Brooke Vogleman, Licensed Practical Nurse, TLC Management, Huntington, IN
• Matthew Connell, EdD, Sector Vice President for Healthcare, Ivy Tech Community College, Indianapolis, IN
• Jasmine Travers, PhD, MHS, RN, AGPCNP-BC, Assistant Professor, New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, New York, NY