As the COVID public health emergency is set to expire, Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, released the following statement about letters sent this week to Congressional leaders and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra calling for the federal government to eliminate the three-day qualifying hospital stay requirement for skilled nursing care. In both letters, LeadingAge provides evidence and anecdotes demonstrating the requirement is outdated, not meaningful, and unreasonable, as well as increasing costs to the Medicare program.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that requiring a mandatory, three-day hospital stay for everyone who is ready to enter a nursing home is wasteful and ineffective. As the public health emergency expires, we urge the Department of Health and Human Services to immediately make permanent the waiver of the 3-day requirement, and we urge Congress to do away with the requirement entirely.”

Read the full statement.

For additional explanation of the 3-day stay requirement, see the fact sheet 3-day Stay vs. Benefit Period Waiver Explainer.