Political Quotes

“I rise this evening to try to correct a grave error made by CMS. My amendment would prohibit funds from being used to finalize, implement, or enforce CMS's proposed nursing home staffing mandate rule. It is insane. The proposed rule would require nursing homes to provide 24/7 onsite registered nurse coverage and a minimum of 0.55 RN and 2.45 nurse aide hours per resident day. As CMS noted in the proposed rule, the proposed NA and RN requirements exceed those in nearly all States, and if finalized, these new floors would increase staffing in more than 75 percent of nursing homes nationwide. In other words, more than three-quarters of nursing homes in America today would not be compliant if the proposal went into effect. To comply with the hours per resident day requirement, urban facilities would be required to hire an additional 10,495 RNs and 61,348 NAs, while rural facilities would be required to hire an additional 2,100 RNs, 15,000 NAs. Likewise, to comply with the 24/7 RN requirement, an additional 1,900 RNs would be needed in urban areas, 1,300 in rural areas. Collectively, the nationwide compliance cost for nursing homes is estimated to be $40 billion over the next 10 years. Those are CMS's own estimates.…”