Kevin Cramer: “the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is seemingly doing everything they can to prevent our veterans…”

“the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is seemingly doing everything they can to prevent our veterans and seniors from receiving quality long-term care. That is their mission, but they seem to be doing everything they can to prevent it. Instead of working to ensure quality care for our veterans and seniors, the Agency seems hyperfocused on what appears to be a warpath--a warpath to push long-term care facilities to their limit. Rather than listening to the substantial feedback from facilities and managers, healthcare leaders, and Members of Congress, the Agency insists on implementing these overbearing, unrealistic rules and procedures to flex its bureaucratic muscle, as if to just show us how big their muscles are. The actions of CMS are far beyond misguided, and the result is the intentional--it seems to me--disregard for the actual safety and care of the seniors and veterans they are charged to care for. In North Dakota, our facilities are really feeling the squeeze, and the issue is really twofold. First and most importantly for my State, the minimum staffing rule--the minimum staffing rule. In an attempt to ensure adequate staffing levels, CMS went over the top. In May, CMS issued this minimum staffing rule which requires long-term care facilities to implement new staffing requirements. Now, these are institutions that are already woefully understaffed because of a lack of a workforce.…”