Federal Protections for Nursing Home Residents Under Attack

Longstanding federal safeguards, rights and benefits for nursing home residents are in jeopardy due to various proposals by the new Congress, Trump Administration and the nursing home industry. Proposals under consideration would gut or scale back regulations governing nursing homes, end government oversight by turning over nursing home inspections to private accreditation agencies, slash Medicaid funding and coverage by capping funding to the states, and diminish critical protections in the Affordable Care Act and other federal laws.

The nursing home industry wasted no time in trying to cash in on the new Administration. A December 15, 2016 letter from the American Health Care Association (AHCA) to then President-Elect Trump describes its shameless proposals to repeal the new federal nursing home regulations and give even more federal money to nursing home operators. AHCA incredulously claims that poverty and overregulation have brought the nursing home industry to the brink of failure.