Missouri has several bills proposed to tables that are directly intended for long-term care facilities. While some of the laws seek to improve the level of SNF staffing in states, some laws aim to tighten compliance guidelines.
The most notable bill in question appears to reflect the federal staffing mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The law will map nursing home staffing requirements and will also increase facility ownership monitoring.
“Inappropriate and unrealistic” is how some providers characterized this staffing mandate in McKnight's long-term care news on Wednesday. They are counterproductive to impose penalties for not hiring nurses that are barely available due to employment and retention challenges.
However, Voyce, a long-term care residents advocacy group, supports measures that make proper residents' care unnegotiable.
“Missouri consistently has the lowest hour care hours per resident nationwide. In the second quarter of 2024, residents received an average of 3.24 hours of care. The national average was 3.71 hours of care per day.” “Missouri residents deserve high quality care, which cannot be achieved without a larger staffing level in the long-term care community.”
A recent report by the Missouri Alliance for Long-Term Care Reform found that around 68 problematic nursing facilities have been identified statewide. The key quality indicators used to select facilities revealed “surprising patterns of poor care, regulatory violations and financial exploitation,” according to the report.
Another bill, a brew that has been voted by the committee and could soon move forward, doesn't have the exact same support, at least from Moore.
The bill will not be published and will give facilities 24 hours a day to correct violations found by state surveyors during regular or complaint visits.
“Because (we) are against this, our community and long-term care consumers have a right to understand the quality of the facilities in which they place their loved ones,” Moore accused.
Providers are uncertain about the future of the bill, especially as staffing measures are the first of its kind proposed by the state. He had not had a committee hearing Wednesday afternoon.
