WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Friday that the worst care homes will face tougher penalties if conditions don’t improve.
Increased surveillance on some nursing homes housing more than one million people comes almost two years after COVID-19 exposed poor care and extreme staffing shortages that had long been exacerbated at the facility. later. Nursing home residents are significantly more likely to die from COVID-19. As of February, more than 200,000 care home staff or residents have died from the virus.
President Joe Biden promised in his State of the Union address in February to overhaul the country’s nursing home system, but some of those initiatives have yet to be fully implemented.
The new guidelines, announced Friday, apply to less than 0.5% of nursing homes nationwide. The facility has already been designated as a “Special Priority Facility” due to previous violations and is on a sort of watchlist that requires Medicaid and Medicare Centers to monitor it more regularly.
Starting Friday, these orphanages will lose federal funding if they receive more than one dangerous violation. It will also be monitored for a minimum of 3 years. CMS also considers a nursing home’s staffing level when adding the facility to its watchlist. There are currently 88 nursing homes on the list.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said: “Let’s be clear: We are stepping up our crackdown on the worst performing care homes in our country.
The agency is investigating the staffing rate of nursing homes to meet the requirements. The study is expected to be completed next year.
The administration also announced grants worth $80 million to medical institutions, trade associations or unions to train and hire nursing staff. Organizations must apply for money by January 6th.
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