Rep. Duffy Introduces Bill to Improve Seniors’ Nursing Care

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 -- Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wisconsin, issued the following news release:

Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy, Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing & Insurance, today introduced legislation to change the mandatory Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) training lockout for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF), and instead allow the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to impose a lockout based on a substandard quality of care. The legislation will allow quality nursing homes to continue training new qualified nurses, while encouraging underperforming nursing homes to quickly come into compliance with the law.

"As more Wisconsinites reach retirement age and live longer lives, it's more important than ever that Skilled Nursing Facilities are able to educate and sponsor new Certified Nursing Assistants to meet increased labor demands," said Congressman Duffy. "This need is especially important in rural America, where SNFs are often major employers. I'm proud to introduce legislation to eliminate another layer of Washington red tape that prevents Wisconsin seniors from receiving the highest quality of care from well-trained medical professionals."

Background:

The CNA training lockout currently impacts more than half of all Skilled Nursing Facilities in Wisconsin, while in some states that number is much higher.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) currently enforces a mandatory CNA training lockout for SNFs that are assigned Civil Monetary Penalties (CMP) exceeding roughly $10,000. This lockout is counterintuitive because it limits a SNFs ability to train new qualified staff, which can perpetuate a substandard quality of care if facilities are not able to recruit qualified nurses. Nursing homes that are compliant with the law should not be forced to sacrifice quality staff because of arbitrary lockouts.

Click HERE to read the Nursing Home Workforce Quality Act in full (https://duffy.house.gov/sites/duffy.house.gov/files/wysiwyg_uploaded/Nursing.pdf).