Rep. Estes Reintroduces Legislation Benefiting Nursing Homes In-House CNA Programs

WASHINGTON - Ron Estes (R-Kan.) and Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.) reintroduced the Ensuring Seniors' Access to Quality Care Act. This bill allows nursing homes to continue operating their in-house CNA training program even if they incur fines above a certain amount, so long as the fines are issued for reasons unrelated to direct resident care.

"This common sense, bipartisan bill accounts for the current workforce challenges nursing homes face without compromising on a commitment to quality care for residents." said Rep. Estes. "This bill ensures nursing homes continue to meet high standards without losing the staffing levels needed to provide high-quality care."

Rep. Estes said, "The Seniors' Access to Quality Care Act prevents an in-house CNA education program from facing suspension due to non-care related clerical violations." "That's a commonsense solution to help keep CNA education programs operational and assist nursing homes across the country with staffing levels."

"We should be doing everything we can to rebuild our workforce and make sure seniors get the consistent, high-quality care they deserve," said Rep. Harder. "This bill will help grow the pipeline of caregivers. I'm grateful to Congressman Estes for his leadership on this issue."

"We applaud Congressmen Estes and Harder for reintroducing the Ensuring Seniors' Access to Quality Care Act to help develop more certified nursing assistants. As America's population ages and demand for long term care grows, we strongly support this legislation and its goals to expand training pipelines and workforce capacity so that we can continue delivering high-quality, person-centered care. Addressing a key legislative priority of our Caregivers for Tomorrow initiative, this commonsense legislation represents the type of practical, collaborative policy solutions needed to support our caregivers and the people they serve," Michael Bassett, Senior Vice President of Government Relations for American Health Care Association said.

Background

Today, current surveys show about 94-96% of nursing facilities are still actively hiring or struggling to fill roles, and rural areas have reported having to limit admissions to their facilities close to 50% their full capacity due to these challenges. We are pleased that we were able to roll back the Biden administration's nursing home staffing mandate which would have worsened workforce shortages across the country and required nursing homes nationwide already struggling to find staff to hire more than 100,000 additional nurses and nurse aides. One estimate suggested nearly 300,000 residents would lose access to care - more than one-fourth of all residents - as nursing homes slow admissions to comply with the mandate. Rep. Estes wrote about this rule and his CNA bill in a November 2023 op-ed in The Hill.

Under current law, Medicare prevents nursing homes from operating a Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) training program for two years if the facility is fined a certain amount. In making the decision to prohibit the training program, Medicare does not account for the seriousness of the underlying deficiency or activity the fine was related to. For example, a nursing home could be fined for a deficiency unrelated to direct resident care, like having expired crackers in a food pantry, yet would still be prohibited from operating a CNA training program for two years. While current law contains a waiver, it is seldom used and has proven inadequate. Rep. Estes' legislation addresses this issue.

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