Senior Care Roundtable
I hosted a Senior Care Roundtable in Hutchinson where over a dozen members of the healthcare community and I discussed some of the biggest issues affecting their work. One particularly discouraging piece of news that came out this week is that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has finalized the first ever federally mandated nursing staff ratio. They are doing this despite the fact that their own report found that no single staffing level can guarantee quality care. And they are doing this despite the fact that my colleagues and I have been telling them over and over again that this rule is going to have seriously detrimental effects on seniors' access to care in rural communities.
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We also discussed mental healthcare needs, and financial barriers for some families.
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Many facilities across the 7th District would have to decrease the amount of care they can provide or even close altogether. This rule is also going to cost nursing homes $6.8 billion to train over 100,000 more workers to meet these new standards. Of course we want the best possible care for our seniors, but this rule is decidedly not the way to achieve that goal, because the rule does magically create more nurses. As one of the attendees proudly said, "the rural community is innovative," and if they are given the opportunity, they will find solutions to the workforce issue. The Administration needs to be focusing its efforts on working with stakeholders like the people at this roundtable to bolster recruitment and retention.
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Attendees also shared the benefits of telehealth, and the need to make permanent some of the provisions that are set to expire.
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I have been fighting this rule every step of the way. I sent a letter to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) urging them not to implement the rule, I have spoken directly with Secretary Becerra more than once when he testified before the Ways and Means Committee, and I have introduced legislation that would prevent the rule from being implemented until they can prove it will not hurt rural facilities. I will keep doing everything I can to protect rural seniors' access to care.
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