Long-term care providers shouldn’t focus too narrowly on whether or not attempts to weaken the proposed federal staffing mandate will be successful, industry experts warned Tuesday.
Tighter regulation should be expected going forward, no matter how the proposed Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule may ultimately be altered, according to Erin Shvetzoff, the CEO of Health Dimensions Group.
“We continue to see this administration really pushing higher regulation and higher penalties around skilled nursing facilities and this will be pushed to our states,” she said during a webinar forecasting trends that her firm produced.
Nursing homes must be proactive about addressing these problems going into 2024, asserted Paul Branin, HDG’s vice president of business development.
“[Solutions] should be implemented regardless of whether the final decision is made on the staffing mandate,” Branin said, before outlining his suggestions for SNFs. “Overall, a difficult operating environment for skilled nursing operators exists, but there are opportunities for success for operators committed to quality care and overall improvement.”
Experts spoke candidly on both the challenges and opportunities facing skilled nursing operators, laying out industry trends for the coming year.
An eye-opening 94% of nursing homes across the country do not currently meet at least one of the three staff-hours requirements in CMS’s proposed staffing minimum rule.
Meeting those requirements will mean 100,000 new full time employees country-wide and cost SNFs nearly $7 billion annually. This is especially burdensome when the workforce has already contracted by 210,000 since the COVID-19 pandemic — a block of the workforce that likely won’t be regained until 2027, according to John Capasso, executive advisor at HDG.
Oriented toward solutions
Branin gave three top tactics for addressing the changing employment landscape in 2024. Staff retention led out of the gate.
“What are you doing to keep your staff in place?” he asked. “Are you surveying them? Are you asking for their input? Are you implementing the recommended changes?”
He also highlighted pursuing new technology as a way of streamlining workflows. Shvetzoff endorsed the recommendation.
“[New technology] can help with monitoring profiles, changes in vitals, helping quickly respond to clinical needs, and assisting with staffing needs,” she said. “What tasks can we replace with technology to allow our people that we’re able to hire to take care of the amount and the acuity of people coming our way?”
Finally, Branin recommended outsourcing or centralizing administrative tasks as much as possible to continue freeing up time for care workers to focus on residents.
“Revenue cycle management is one area that can be completed fairly easily offsite, which allows your community to spend more quality time taking care of their residents,” he explained.
Experts agreed that, overall, the key ways to weather current market challenges will involve holistically looking inward and finding innovative ways to maximize efficiency rather than hastily expanding outward in search of new profits.
“When considering growth … thinking in a holistic approach is most important,” Branin stated. “Growth will bring new revenue, but what are the risks associated with this growth — reputational, regulatory or financial?”
