Nursing home workers pushed for more accountability of owners and better wages to improve the workforce in a meeting Wednesday with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
Brooks-LaSure said CMS is incorporating the perspectives of those with experiences from inside nursing homes, especially workers, as it approaches the nursing home reform initiatives laid out by President Joe Biden earlier this year.
“We are really focused on minimum staffing requirements, certainly for residents, but also for workers to ensure there are opportunities for career advancement,” she said. “We’re really focused on making sure we’re transparent so that there is transparency in nursing home ownership so that residents can really escalate issues as they happen, and also really rethinking how we approach nursing homes that are not meeting the standards that we want them to meet.”
The virtual conversation with the four workers from around the U.S. was led by the Service Employees International Union and centered around their realities of caregiving and job conditions in the sector. It follows meetings last week between the agency and providers on the federal government’s reform plans.
“Nursing home workers have been short-staffed, overworked and working in unsafe conditions well before COVID … Being short-staffed doesn’t only take a toll on us, but it takes a toll on the residents, too,” said Tamara Blue, a certified nursing assistant in Michigan.
“We need a real change — safe staffing, better pay and more training,” she added. “Owners must be held accountable for how they treat the residents and the staff.”
The group specifically cited establishing a national minimum staffing standard as a potential solution that could improve conditions. They also suggested adjusting reimbursement rates and tying increases to workers’ wages.
“My coworkers have complained about low staffing and low pay and you get lost in your bubble, but you realize it is nationwide,” said Julie Martinez, a nursing home licensed practical nurse. “There is short staffing everywhere. They could never pay us as healthcare workers what we deserve, and they need to start.”
Brooks-LaSure told the group CMS officials “really want to incorporate” many of the points workers have raised.
“This is not the last conversation we’re going to have,” she said. “We’re going to continue to engage.”
