Letter to CMS Seeks Better Protections for Nursing Home Residents During Crisis

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Forty-five national and state organizations, including CANHR, signed on to a letter that was sent today to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator. The letter calls for immediate actions by CMS to better protect nursing home residents’ rights and safety during the pandemic.

It makes six key recommendations:

  • Require immediately that nursing facilities disclose whether residents or staff have been infected by COVID-19.
  • Keep residents safe by setting meaningful standards for the necessary staff, training, and equipment to care for residents with COVID-19 and those without. 
  • Combat isolation by requiring nursing facilities to actively coordinate and facilitate telephone calls, video conferences, and other communications between residents and their family members and friends.
  • Avoid disruption by requiring facilities and states to work collaboratively with residents and their families when making transfers designed to “cohort” residents with others who also are COVID-positive, or COVID-negative. 
  • Give residents a greater ability to move in with family during this emergency, by guaranteeing a resident’s right to return to the facility, if desired, and facilitating access to Medicaid home and community-based services. 
  • Require all federally-certified facilities to accept Medicaid, in every room in the facility. 

You can download and read the letter HERE.