Federal Staffing Minimums Unreasonable.

• Position: LONG-TERM CARE

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) has released a report showing that increasing staffing minimums as proposed by the Biden Administration will require billions of dollars to hire tens of thousands of additional caregivers.

The report estimates the impact of implementing a staffing minimum of 4.1 hours per resident day and found it would cost $10,000,000,000 a year and require hiring more than 187,000 nurses and nurse aides to meet the standard. Eighteen percent--more than 205,000--of residents may be at risk of displacement as facilities are forced to potentially reduce their census in order to meet the higher staffing standard.

The Biden Administration's proposal comes without the necessary resources that facilities would need to recruit additional caregivers. The long-term care industry still is in the midst of a historic workforce crisis, and nursing homes have lost more than 200,000 workers over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, disproportionately more than any other health care sector.

The...