DRF Commends the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Effort to Enhance Nursing Home Care Quality through Minimum Staffing Standards & Medicaid Payment Transparency

Disability Rights Florida submitted comments to the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in November regarding their initiative to set minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities and bring transparency to institutions' Medicaid payment reporting. We support these measures to enhance nursing home care quality. For many years, experts in health research, geriatricians, nurses, and other clinical professionals have recommended minimum nursing staffing requirements to improve the quality of care in nursing homes. Peer-reviewed literature clearly correlates improved staffing levels with improved care quality. As early as 2001, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services recognized the "strong and compelling" evidence supporting the need for minimum staffing, even when an economy has a chronic workforce shortage. However, when the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic came fully into focus, the State of Florida responded to health and safety concerns by reducing minimum staffing standards and the frequency of comprehensive resident assessments. According to a 2022 AARP Florida report, this reduction in direct care staffing led to 30 fewer hours of nursing care per day in nursing homes with 100 residents.

In our comments, we expand upon these thoughts and address COVID-19's disproportionate impact on residents of congregate living homes, the need for resident-centered care, workers' compensation and the labor market, and the implementation of institutional financial oversight. 

Read our full comments to CMS.