A newly introduced piece of legislation to mandate minimum staffing standards in nursing homes would seek to undo what the Trump Administration, bipartisan opposition in Congress, and the courts have already decided in killing off a similar regulatory proposal formulated by the Biden Administration.

At issue is Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-Ore.) new bill, the “Nurses Belong in Nursing Homes Act,” which aims to replicate much of the now-dead Biden-era staffing mandate by amending Medicare and Medicaid statutes to require minimum staffing standards, including an RN on duty 24/7 and a staffing floor of 3.48 total nursing hours per resident day provided by RNs, LPNs, and CNAs.

Mark Parkinson, the former head of the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living, and current CEO of Park Place Live, said the Wyden bill misses the mark, and will likely not find much support in Congress.

"It's unfortunate that after six years of discussing a minimum staffing rule, there are still politicians who won't face facts,” he said. “The volume of RNs needed to meet a 24/7 requirement don't exist in many parts of the country.  A targeted staffing approach of more infection control nurses, and more RNs on the shifts when they are actually needed is the solution.”

Parkinson added that “fortunately, there has been bipartisan opposition to impossible staffing requirements and I'm confident that this legislation will go nowhere."

In addition to Wyden, six other Democratic senators signed onto the bill as co-sponsors. They are Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.

After federal courts and Congress through its passage of President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” put minimum staffing requirements for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) on life support, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) in early December killed the regulation by repealing provisions of the “Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting Final Rule.”

The staffing rule demanded that SNFs participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs provide residents with a minimum total of 3.48 hours of nursing care per day, including at least 0.55 hours from a RN per resident per day, and 2.45 hours from a nurse aide per resident per day. In addition, the rule required that each SNF have an RN onsite at all times.

These measures would have disproportionately burdened rural and underserved communities already grappling with critical health care workforce shortages, HHS said in announcing the end to the provisions.

Comments or questions? Please contact Patrick Connole at pconnole@parkplacelive.com.