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Nursing home industry seeks to eliminate better staffing for residents in Build Back Better Act

November 17, 2021

Tell your senators staffing must be included!

On November 19, 2021, the House of Representative passed the Build Back Better Act, which included important protections for nursing home residents.  However, the nursing home industry is lobbying hard to remove these protections for nursing home residents.  They are particularly focused on gutting staffing provisions that would require facilities to have a registered nurse on staff 24 hours per day and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to conduct a study and promulgate regulations for a minimum staffing standard. 

Despite ample evidence that inadequate staffing contributed to over 186,000 deaths in long-term care facilities, the industry is pulling out all the stops to prevent these and other provisions from being implemented. Right now, nursing homes around the country are calling their Congress members' district offices to oppose increased staffing.

We need you to call with a different message. Congress needs to hear directly from residents, families and their advocates that the staffing provisions must be included because adequate staffing is the key to safety and quality of care. Our country can’t build back better without it.

Take Action Now:

Please contact your senators’ district office.

1.  Find your senators' contact information:

• Find your senator here by searching your state. To find the phone number for their district office, click their name.  You'll be brought to your senator's website.  District office phone numbers are most often found in the Contact > Office Locations section of their website.

2.  Introduce yourself: “My name is ______. I am a constituent in __(your city and state)__.”

3.  Ask to speak to a legislative aide about the Build Back Better Act.  If they are busy, leave a message including your talking points.

4.  What to say:  "As a constituent, I am urging __(name of senator)__ to stand with nursing home residents and to support the nursing home staffing provisions included in the version of the Build Back Better Act passed on November 19, 2021.  These provisions will save lives by requiring nursing homes to have a registered nurse on staff 24 hours a day, and result in a staffing study and the implementation of a minimum staffing standard.   Ample evidence has shown that inadequate staffing contributed to the over 186,000 deaths in long-term care facilities from COVID-19. 

In addition, I also urge __(name of senator)__ to support the additional provisions, which would

• Enhance oversight and enforcement in nursing homes;
• Require increased scrutiny of data submitted to the federal government in nursing homes; and
• Result in more accountability for how nursing homes spend the billions of dollars they receive each year in taxpayer funds."

5.  Thank them and say that you hope you can count on your senator to better protect the nursing home residents in their district.