A bill introduced Sept. 28 by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) to end the mandatory certified nurse assistant (CNA) training lockout for skilled nursing facilities needs support to help move the legislation along.
The Nursing Home Workforce Quality Act (H.R. 6986) would accomplish two main objectives:
- End the mandatory CNA training lockout. Rather than an arbitrary 2-year penalty, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the states would have the discretion to impose a lockout under certain conditions.
- Perhaps more importantly, any imposed lockout would end once the deficiencies cited are remedied.
This bill is very important to nursing facilities in rural South Dakota because of the financial hardship the lockout places on providers when they have to pay travel expenses to send CNAs to other locations for training and hire temporary staff to ensure all shifts are covered. CNAs are often the principal caregiver in nursing homes and eliminating training programs for vital front-line staff threatens the quality of care that is provided to residents.
Please contact Rep. Kristi Noem and ask for her support of H.R. 6986 so that it may move to the House floor for a vote.
