After Nursing Home Push, Home Health Reform Could Be Up Next

Home Health Care News

With a recently released set of proposed reforms, the Biden administration is placing U.S. nursing homes under greater scrutiny.

And though the reforms are focused entirely on nursing homes, providers in other sectors – including home health – are wondering if there will be reverberations throughout post-acute care.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden expressed his intent to improve nursing home conditions during his first State of the Union address. In particular, he called out private equity (PE)-owned facilities.

“As Wall Street firms take over more nursing homes, quality in those homes has gone down and costs have gone up. That ends on my watch,” Biden said during his speech.

Earlier in the week, the Biden administration released a comprehensive set of proposed reforms. The aim of the reforms is to “protect vulnerable residents,” as well as health care workers.

The White House briefing also mentions cracking down on “bad actors” in the nursing home industry.

Among other things, reforms include establishing minimum staffing requirements and examining the growing role of PE in the nursing home sector. These actions were developed by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the White House stated.

“CMS is ready to implement this vision and at the foundation is the establishment of minimum standards for staffing in nursing homes,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, CMS Administrator, said in a press statement. “This new evidence-based requirement will permanently strengthen quality of care by ensuring facilities have enough well-trained staff on duty to provide the services needed by the residents who rely on them.”

This substantial increase in federal nursing home regulation has led some providers to believe that home health could be on the Biden administration’s radar next.

“It’s just a matter of time before it hits home health,” Peter Miska, regional director of program development at Elite Care Management, told Home Health Care News. “It’s not a question of if — it’s a question of when. [Home health providers] should start preparing for it now, so they’re ahead of the curve.”

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