Facing a harsher regulatory environment from the state and federal governments in recent years, top long-term care leaders called for more collaboration and measures that work to improve care quality in nursing homes.
The current system is full of backlogs and is overly punitive, they emphasized in a special McKnight’s VIP Executive Conversation Thursday.
The sector leaders were quick to acknowledge the need for common sense regulations to ensure the quality of care for the vulnerable individuals in nursing homes. Current and proposed regulations seem to be at odds with achieving better care, however, they added.
“Common sense has to prevail,” said Deke Cateau, CEO at Atlanta-based provider AG Rhodes. “We as a nation can produce a regulatory environment that on one hand punishes bad offenders but on the other hand plays a part in improving the quality of care in our nursing homes. And that latter part is simply nonexistent.”
Beyond the punitive nature of some regulations, the survey backlogs nursing homes face have become an increasingly painful challenge, the leaders agreed.
“Never in my entire life would I have ever thought that an administrator would say, ‘Where are the surveyors? It’s time for them to come back,’” said Clif Porter (pictured), senior vice president of government affairs at the American Health Care Association.
Large backlogs have meant that surveyors now have far more data to mine for potential deficiencies. Surveyors may also be more focused on catching up with their own workload backlogs than on helping nursing home operators understand the survey process, discussion participants pointed out.
Something to scream about
Multiple leaders indicated the proposed federal staffing mandate from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is a perfect example of regulation that places a burden on nursing homes without actually addressing underlying issues.
“I’d be happy to hear what I’m doing wrong in a way that I can improve the quality of life of the people we serve — not necessarily in a punitive format,” explained Roberto Muñiz, president and CEO of New Jersey-based Parker Health Group and board chair of LeadingAge. “People are developing new regulations such as staffing requirements when they’re not addressing everything else that has to come with the staffing.”
The leaders pointed to immigration reform as a major priority that sector advocates should push with policymakers. Without pursuing such reforms, the upcoming staffing mandate would demonstrate a severe misunderstanding of the reality of the long-term care workforce, according to Andy Carle, adjunct faculty and lead instructor at Georgetown University’s administrator training program.
“[The government] seems to have an abject misunderstanding of what skilled nursing facilities do for a living,” Carle said. “They want to mandate minimum staff requirements while they simultaneously block immigration reform that would give us the people we need to meet the minimum staff requirements. It’s just nonsensical…. They need to listen. And frankly everybody in our industry should be on Capitol Hill screaming about immigration reform.”
