Nursing homes in Missouri could shut down under proposed federal staffing mandate

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - A proposed federal rule would put staffing requirements on Medicaid and Medicare-eligible nursing homes, holding them accountable if they don’t have enough staff in a facility.

This proposed rule under the Biden-Harris Administration would require Medicaid and Medicare-eligible nursing homes to make sure each resident gets at least half an hour with a registered nurse each day and around two and a half hours each day with a nurse aide. It would also require a registered nurse on site 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

Tim Corbin is the nursing home administrator at Truman Lake Manor in Lowry City. He said rural nursing homes would get hit the hardest if this proposal goes through.

“I run a home in the small town of Lowry City where the population is under 700 people. We already struggle now for nurses. We have to limit the amount of residents that can come and live in our facility because we have to have the staff to take care of them. This proposal will continue to make that problem worse,” Corbin said.

Nikki Strong is the executive director of the Missouri Health Care Association. Strong said these requirements aren’t obtainable for many facilities.

“When we look at the statistics approximately four out of 496 certified facilities in the state of Missouri would actually meet this current mandate,” Strong said. “That’s impossible to be able to provide care. We would see I think a lot of nursing home closures.”

Strong also said most nursing homes in our state are also chronically under-funded.

Brian Miller is the CEO at Maranatha Village in Springfield. Miller said although his facility isn’t understaffed, he’s worried about the facilities in rural areas that are already short on staff as it is.

“The census certainly is declining in our rural communities. All these buildings aren’t full. They’re probably sitting at half, 75 percent full at the most. The numbers just aren’t adding up. Some of these smaller buildings are going to suffer,” Miller said.

Both Strong and Miller sent comment letters to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expressing their concerns with the proposal. Strong said CMS has probably received thousands of letters voicing concern by now.

You can read all about the proposal and what it entails on The White House website. Nikki Strong said usually, with proposals like this, CMS goes through all the comment letters before anything can be finalized, so it could be months before we find out if this mandate goes through.

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