Providers were split Monday over the news that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he wouldn’t back President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan and its nearly $1 billion for the long-term care industry.
Manchin’s vote is necessary for passage of the historic spending bill; in an evenly split Senate, no Republicans are supporting it.
Mark Parkinson, president & CEO of the American Health Care Association, called any delay or halt of Build Back Better “a sigh of relief for nursing home providers.”
“The current legislation included unfunded and unrealistic staffing mandates as well as concerning reductions to Medicaid,” he said in a Monday statement. “While there were disappointing provisions impacting skilled nursing facilities, there were promising grants to grow our workforce and opportunities to expand Medicaid’s home and community-based services, including in assisted living. But ultimately, the package falls short of what is needed to help us address the current crisis and systemic challenges in long-term care.”
The Senate’s latest version of the Build Back Better Act includes several provisions specific to nursing homes and long-term care, including $800 million in grant funding for workforce and infection control improvements. It also calls on federal health officials to conduct a study to determine the ideal minimum nurse staff-to-resident ratio for SNFs, but leaves out a House proposal that would have imposed those minimum requirements on all facilities.
The bill also would require SNFs to have a registered nurse present 24 hours per day, which would be an increase from the current federal requirement of eight hours. It also calls for revisions to temporary increase of FMAP funding approved for COVID-19 relief measures that providers say would decrease Medicaid funding.
But Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, on Monday sounded off on the potential delay and said the legislation contains historic investments in home- and community-based services, affordable housing for low-income older adults and other “much-needed measures to address the aging services sector’s severe workforce challenges.”
“Too many older adults are struggling to access the essential services they need; Americans overwhelmingly support the increased investments in aging services contained in Build Back Better,” Sloan said in a statement. “Nothing should disrupt Congress from delivering this much-needed help for older adults and their families.”
The hope is that lawmakers “fulfill their duty to our nation’s seniors by investing in policies that will help protect their access to quality long term care” in the new year, Parkinson said.
“Whether through Build Back Better or other legislation, it is critical that Congress prioritize our most vulnerable as we grapple with another expected COVID surge due to omicron as well as our ongoing labor and economic crises,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) said Monday he still planned to hold a vote on Build Back Better, and other Democrats continued to pressure Manchin to back the party line.
