March 22, 2022

In this Issue:

1. March Forth Together: Social Media Week
   
2. OSHA Increasing Enforcement in Nursing Facilities
   
3. Summary of Recently Announced Biden-Harris Administration Nursing Home Reforms
   
4. Senate Committee on Aging Hearing Wednesday on the Importance of At-Home Services
   
5. National Advisory Committees on Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities and Disasters to Hold Inaugural Meeting on March 30th

March Forth Together: Social Media Week

Let's raise resident voices and make sure they're heard! This week, join us for Social Media Week March 21-25. We are encouraging nursing home residents and their family members to speak about understaffing.  

1. Create a video of a resident in a nursing home explaining in their own words - What does it mean when there aren't enough staff? See a sample of a resident clip here.
2. Post the video to your social media on Thursday, March 24th for our Twitter Storm using #UnderstaffingisNeglect and #MarchForthwithResidents
3. Tag @consumervoices on Twitter.
4. Amplify other voices by retweeting and reposting other posts with those hashtags.

Use our Social Media Toolkit for further instructions, graphics, and sample tweets that you can use during our Twitter Storm on Thursday, March 24th and all week long!

Don't have Twitter?

• It's easy and free to set up an account. Find instructions here.
• On Facebook, tag us @theconsumervoice and use the same hashtags.

OSHA Increasing Enforcement in Nursing Facilities

The US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a short-term increase in highly focused inspections directed at hospitals and skilled nursing care facilities that care for patients with COVID-19.  OSHA will expand its presence in these healthcare facilities from March 9, 2022 to June 9, 2022.  The agency seeks to verify and assess skilled nursing care employers' compliance actions taken, including their readiness to address any ongoing or future COVID-19 surges.

Learn more in OSHA's press release.

Summary of Recently Announced Biden-Harris Administration Nursing Home Reforms

On February 28, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a set of wide-ranging reforms aimed at improving the quality of nursing home care for residents. These reforms take aim at long-standing issues that have plagued nursing home care for decades, including poor staffing, inadequate enforcement, and lack of transparency in nursing home ownership and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

If implemented, these reforms would be the most significant increase in protections for nursing home residents in decades.

The announcement was broken down into five categories:

1. Ensuring Taxpayer Dollars Support Nursing Homes That Provide Safe, Adequate, and Dignified Care
2. Enhancing Accountability and Oversight
3. Increasing Transparency
4. Creating Pathways to Good-Paying Jobs with the Free and Fair Choice to Join a Union
5. Ensuring Pandemic and Emergency Preparedness in Nursing Homes

Read our full summary of the reforms.

Senate Committee on Aging Hearing Wednesday on the Importance of Home-Based Services

The Senate Committee on Aging is holding a hearing on Wednesday, March 23rd at 10am ET entitled "An Economy That Cares: The Importance of Home-Based Services."  The hearing will focus on the Better Care Better Jobs Act legislation which passed the House last year and includes $150 billion in funding for Medicaid home and community-based servies (HCBS).  The hearing will include testimony by several experts including Alene Shaheed, a consumer receiving at-home care.

The hearing will be livestreamed on the Senate Committee on Aging's website.

National Advisory Committees on Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities and Disasters to Hold Inaugural Meeting on March 30th

The National Advisory Committee on Seniors and Disasters (NACSD) and the National Advisory Committee on Individuals With Disabilities and Disasters (NACIDD) will hold a joint, inaugural public meeting on March 30, 2022.  The Committees evaluate issues and programs and provide findings, advice, and recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support and enhance public health and medical preparedness, response, and recovery. The NACSD provides focus on the unique needs of older adults, while the NACIDD focuses on helping HHS meet the needs of people with disabilities.  During the meeting, newly appointed members of the committees will discuss challenges, opportunities, and priorities for national public health and medical preparedness, response, and recovery specific to the needs of older adults and people with disabilities in disasters.

Find more information on the Federal Register.