The newly announced incentive program aimed at attracting registered nurses to nursing homes is complicated by long-term care advocates about how it affects other environments, including assistance in living It brings out opinions like this.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that nursing students will be offering up to $40,000 in tuition refunds and/or a complete $10,000 for working in nursing homes and state research institutions. The announcement came shortly after CMS' unveiling of the new nursing home staff ring campaign in December to help skilled nurses and state labs recruit and educate nurses. .
However, Argentum said the country's long-term care workforce has a significant need for investment across all settings, not just nursing homes. The association pointed to a 2023 report and a 2024 update showing that by 2040, workers need to be hired and maintained. Housing, home healthcare and services. (These figures have expanded beyond RNs and other caregivers, with the most in-demand jobs being aides in home health and personal care, followed by nursing assistants, food servers, chefs and housekeepers. Masu.)
“As I said in response to the minimum staffing rules for nursing homes, imposition of new obligations will not create more caregivers. Dan Samson said to McKnight's Director of Government Affairs for Senior Life. He said: “Likewise, investing in targeted programs doesn't serve a wide range of challenges across the industry. It limits resources to specific settings and leaves others without support.”
Argentum urges CMS to extend nursing incentive programs across all long-term care settings, with future programs including loan exemptions, tax credits, apprentice opportunities, immigration reform and workers serving in all long-term care settings. Other incentives were sought to be included.
According to the American Healthcare Association, that isn't necessarily all the good news either. It says it is concerned about some of the “fine printing” of funds that could take months or years to distribute. The Nursing Home Association also stated that limited eligibility for RNS alone “cannot recognize the immeasurable value of LPNs for long-term care professionals.”
Additionally, funding staffing campaigns with private financial fines paid by nursing homes that violate laws and regulations to pay RN surveyors will reduce resources to adopt RNS and residents. Provides direct care to. And the clinical services for the AHCA and the National Center for Living Support told McKnight's Senior Living.
“Finally and unfortunately, this effort is a reduction in buckets, taking into account the number of nurses needed nationwide, especially to be able to follow the mandate of new staffing,” Harmon said. “To build a robust pipeline of caregivers that the country needs to care for the ever-growing elderly, policy makers must invest important resources and advance meaningful policy changes. .”
According to Harmon, AHCA/NCAL will continue to work with CMS to address the ongoing workforce shortage.
The whole continuum may benefit
Leadingage, representing nonprofit providers across the long-term care continuum, took a broader view of incentives.
“One of the potential benefits of incentives is that they expose RNs to the sector,” Janine Finck-Boyle told McKnight's senior living room. “For example, after three years in a nursing home, nurses can move to assisted living or another type of environment.”
Finck-Boyle said there is a shortage of RNS across healthcare and initiatives such as financial incentive programs from CMS are important. In the first year of implementation. Certain staffing regulations included in the three-stage rules began to be launched in 2026. The power of attorney is in effect and multiple cases have been caught up in federal courts, but there is hope that the Trump administration will significantly withdraw or amend it.
However, she acknowledged that RNS is also important for living, home hygiene and support for hospice. When nursing home delegation was first proposed in 2023, Leading said it was “unintended” including “severe labor competition” between nursing homes and other environments, as providers would recruit from the same pool of workers. It warned that it would produce results.
“Like we see people who don't have access to nursing home beds, we see the same happening to people who are seeking home health services, mainly due to staffing shortages. ” says Finck-Boyle.
However, RNS is a smaller part of the workforce of assisted caregivers than other long-term care settings. According to NCAL, the composition of nursing staff for assisted living was 66% of aides, licensed occupational nurses and licensed practical nurses, and 15% RNs as of January 2023. In comparison, 57% of caregivers are assistants in nursing homes. % is RNS and 17% is LPN. In home and community-based service settings, 86% are aides, 10% are RNS, and 3.7% are LPN.
