The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) is urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reissue blanket waivers allowing America’s nursing homes flexibility in training nurse aides during the COVID-19 public health emergency and beyond. In Wisconsin, these federal waivers allowed for the Emergency Nurse Aide and Temporary Nurse Aide programs.

CMS ended the section of the 1135 waiver that permitted the employment of temporary and emergency nurse aides on June 6, ending the temporary nurse aide program on June 6 and giving emergency nurse aides  four months to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA), as dictated in statute.

“It is evident that the temporary nurse aide role has been pivotal and beneficial to our nursing home residents nationwide, not on a case-by-case basis,” said Holly Harmon, RN, LNHA and senior vice president of Quality, Regulatory, and Clinical Services at AHCA/NCAL. “Federal data clearly shows that quality of care for residents remains high when temporary nurse aides are present. Our residents deserve continuity of care from caregivers they know, and these experienced aides deserve adequate time to build a permanent career in long term care.”

The looming deadline for the employment of emergency nurse aides in WI comes as nursing homes grapple with a historic labor crisis. Nursing homes have lost more than 220,000 caregivers​ over the course of the pandemic, which is disproportionately more than any other health care sector, and workforce levels are at a nearly 30-year low.

“At a time when the Administration intends to propose new staffing regulations in nursing homes, it is ironic that they are ending a program that helps address staffing shortages,” continued Parkinson. “We urge policymakers to do the right thing—to reissue a nationwide waiver to keep tens of thousands of caregivers at our residents’ bedside.”