The Senior Care Policy Briefing covers important long-term care issues by highlighting policy updates, news reports, and academic research.
Read the full Senior Care Policy Briefing below or download here.
April 15, 2025.
NEWSFLASH
- United States Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Ron Wyden have requested the Government Accountability Office (GAO) update its 2018 report on Medicaid-funded assisted living oversight. The original report revealed significant gaps in federal oversight, with many state Medicaid agencies unable to track critical incidents such as abuse, neglect, and medication errors. The request follows continued findings that violations in assisted living often go unpenalized.
- Nursing home inspections, already underfunded, face further disruption due to major workforce reductions at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). These cuts could severely impact nursing home surveys, compliance oversight, and enforcement of care standards.
- Worsening delays in inspections and accountability puts residents at greater risk of harm.
- A federal judge in Texas has struck down the Biden Administration’s national nursing home staffing mandate, which would have required every facility to have a registered nurse (RN) on-site 24/7 and provide a minimum of 3.48 hours of direct care per resident day.
- Although these requirements fell far short of what is necessary to provide adequate care, they would have at least established a meaningful baseline for the most neglectful nursing homes.
“One expert explained that the answers to key questions about the quality of care in these facilities are “often purposefully obfuscated by both operators and the state agencies that are supposed to be protecting residents.””
– Senators’ letter to GAO citing LTCCC Executive Director Richard Mollot’s January 2024 testimony
LTC BY THE NUMBERS
- The nursing home industry continues to claim that Medicaid funding is too little. Yet a new report in the IndyStar found that public hospitals – which own nearly all of Indiana’s nursing homes – “kept about 46% of $5.6 billion in supplemental Medicaid payments generated by roughly 500 nursing homes they acquired over the past 15 years. At the same time, Indiana’s nursing homes continue to rank near the very bottom of the nation for staffing.”
TRIPLE THREAT
- America’s nursing home system is at a critical juncture according to healthcare operations and financial analysis expert James A. Lomastro. Financial exploitation—fueled by the commodification of elder care, private equity’s aggressive expansion, and the lasting impacts of COVID-19—continues to erode care quality. These profit-driven operations prioritize financial gain over resident wellbeing, leading to chronic understaffing, substandard care, and increased mortality rates.
10,000 LIVES
- A new study finds that early vaccine mandates for nursing home staff significantly reduced resident COVID-19 deaths and had minimal impact on staff turnover, countering industry fears. Researchers estimate that a nationwide mandate, had it been implemented earlier, could have saved nearly 10,000 lives. The study, led by UCLA’s Ashvin Gandhi and colleagues, underscores the life-saving potential of proactive health policies.