On October 7, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released guidance on the Nursing Home & Long-Term Care Facility Strike Team and Infrastructure Project. This project is funded through the American Rescue Plan and will funnel $500 million to state / territorial public health through the Center for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Cooperative Agreement. Funding is meant to support nursing homes during SARS-CoV-2 response and to build and maintain infection prevention infrastructure to support resident, visitor, and healthcare personnel safety.

This funding will be divided into 2 separate sections: $250 million to support skilled nursing facilities receiving Medicare dollars and $250 million to support nursing facilities receiving Medicaid dollars. While a small portion of this funding (5% per section) will be allocated evenly among jurisdictions, the total amount allocated to a jurisdiction will vary based on proportion of CMS-certified nursing homes and proportion of total population of the jurisdiction.

Jurisdictions must submit a workplan and budget describing proposed activities within 90 days of Notice of Award. Failure to do so may result in restriction of funds to the jurisdiction. Jurisdictions will be responsible for reporting on use of funds including quarterly progress reports, monthly fiscal reports, and performance measures.

Jurisdictions have a great deal of flexibility in activities that can be funded with this money. Examples include:

• Technical support: in-person or remote support to nursing homes experiencing outbreaks; activities to improve baseline infection prevention and control practices including vaccine uptake; supporting health equity in infection prevention expertise and outbreak response.
• Resources: staffing; testing supplies; personal protective equipment; direct financial support to nursing homes to support detection of and response to outbreaks.
• Infrastructure: conducting environmental assessments and providing recommendations; providing N95 fit testing supplies and services; non-clinical staffing to assist with monitoring/auditing infection control practices, vaccinations, or managing testing and screening.

What Members Can Do

LeadingAge encourages providers to work with LeadingAge state affiliates to reach out to public health early. Inform public health how this money can best support nursing homes in your area. Remember that this is a one-time allocation of funds and public health must spend all funds within one year of the end of the federal public health emergency. Jurisdictions have the option to provide direct financial assistance to nursing homes, but also have the opportunity to fund projects or activities such as deploying clinical teams to nursing homes to conduct outbreak testing or provide vaccine education, setting up systems to efficiently track and report required data into NHSN, or activating a program to train nursing homes to perform their own fit-testing. Remember that public heatlh jurisdictions have flexibility in how to use these funds, but only have 90 days to make decisions, so urgent advocacy is needed to ensure funded projects are realistic to nursing homes’ needs.