Ensuring Seniors’ Access to Quality Care Act

SDAHO and LeadingAge have been working for several years to address the federal Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training lock-out penalty in nursing homes. On May 18, Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tim Scott (R-SC) re-introduced the Ensuring Seniors’ Access to Quality Care Act, a bill to fix the two-year Certified Nurse Aide (CNA) training lockout. This legislation is a companion to the House bill by the same name that was introduced by Representatives Ron Estes (R-KS) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA) on May 11, 2023. Currently, nursing homes assessed civil monetary penalties above a certain level on their annual survey automatically lose their authority to train staff to be CNAs for two years. Both the Senate and House bills would allow providers that have demonstrated their return to compliance to re-start training programs rather than having to sit out a full two years. SDAHO encourages passage of this important legislation to help our nursing homes who struggle with recruitment and retention of CNA staff.