Mark Parkinson

Long-term care professionals took full advantage of an invitation to tell House leaders Tuesday how they could cut Medicare red tape and improve resident care.

The House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee promoted Tuesday’s roundtable event as a chance for post-acute care medical professionals and advocates to share their concerns and ideas.

“We believe there is a big opportunity here to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs by alleviating post-acute care providers from unnecessary administrative burdens that get in the way,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX).

Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of the American Health Care Association, and John Vrba, CEO of Burgess Square Healthcare and Rehab Centre in Westmont, IL, spoke to the gathering.

Parkinson requested lifting federal restrictions on skilled-nursing based training programs for certified nurse assistants. He told lawmakers providers are having a difficult time finding qualified CNAs, and some operators are prevented from running their own training programs because of past penalties.

Other proposals raised included examining what speakers called outdated regulations; minimizing compliance requirements that put too much regulatory strain on, and require too much time for, providers; reducing paperwork; and streamlining processes. 

“What we’re trying to do out of this roundtable discussion and the input we’ve received as a committee is, with specificity, getting a sense of what are the things we can do either to change a statute, or what are the things we can urge CMS to do to change a promulgated rule or a policy that can lift a burden,” Chairman Peter Roskam (R-IL) said.

Previous meetings in March and April focused on physician and hospital concerns.