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Q: What stands out from your findings of the first-ever federally funded National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS)?

A: More than half of certified nursing assistants working in nursing homes sustained at least one work-related
injury last year. And 42% did not participate in their employer-sponsored health insurance plan because they could not afford the premium costs.

Q: What can be done to help?

A: Policy options include subsidizing employer-based coverage, conducting outreach to enroll CNAs in plans offered through public-private partnerships, pooling small employers to form employer purchasing pools, and/or increasing eligibility for publicly funded plans.

Q: What will be the NNAS’s role going forward?

A: As the only national database on CNAs in nursing homes, the NNAS will improve our current understanding of a vital job.

Q: And then what?

A: These and other forthcoming results will figure prominently in federal and state labor, welfare and health policy discussions on expanding the pool of workers and on reimbursement policy, regulation policy and program design.