Workforce

The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (Consumer Voice) recently published a survey report on the impact of understaffing on nursing home residents in 2024. The findings highlight substantial challenges faced by residents, with 88% reporting they do not have adequate staffing in their facilities to meet the care needs of all residents. This report spotlights how understaffing can lead to daily struggles for residents, including delayed care, missed activities, and medication issues. The report underscores the pressing need to address staffing deficiencies to ensure quality, person-centered care in nursing homes.

The Commonwealth Fund has published a compilation of state successes in transforming long-term care as a resource to support policymakers. This policy guide is the result of a nine-month partnership between CSG and the Commonwealth Fund. Subject matter experts and stakeholders from Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia examine the following focus areas in long-term care: Addressing State Regulation of Long-Term Services and Supports Facilities; Optimizing American Rescue Plan Act Spending on Home- and Community-Based Services Under Medicaid; and Revitalizing the Direct Care Workforce and Supporting Family Caregivers.

The impact of COVID-19 on nursing facility residents and staff has brought increased attention to existing workforce issues that affect care quality and safety, including staffing shortages and high turnover rates. This analysis presents the most recent national and state-level data on nursing facility-reported staff shortages and describes the Biden Administration’s new policy initiatives to address issues in nursing facilities. National staff shortage trend data spans from May 2020, the first month when nursing facilities were required to report COVID-19 facility data to the CDC, through March 20, 2022, the most recent week of data available.

The Office of Disability Employment Policy released the report, “Employment of Persons with a Disability: Analysis of Trends during the COVID-19 Pandemic– Findings in Brief.” This report examines workforce changes during COVID-19. It draws on data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey to provide insight into key labor force statistics, employment across industries and occupations, and the effect of the easing of social distancing and the ability to telework on occupational employment change.

This NRP article discusses the delay many states are experiencing in regard to accessing funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in March 2021. The increased funding could be used by states to boost wages, move people off waiting lists for disability services, train more workers, and expand covered services for older adults and people with disabilities, however the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must provide approval before states can fully access their funds.

This year, National Employ Older Workers Week (NEOWW) takes place from September 19-25, 2021. NEOWW is held annually to recognize the vital role of older adults in the workforce. NEOWW aims to increase awareness of older workers and develop innovative strategies to support employment. The theme for this year's National Employ Older Workers Week is: "The Future is NEOWW!"

This report looks at the changes states implemented to their Medicaid or other publicly-funded consumer directed home care programs in order to comply with the 2013 FLSA Home Care Rule. The report includes perspectives from various stakeholders and describes issues raised in interviews. It provides an overview of early implementation efforts, an environmental scan of state policies and procedures, and a case study examination of states with well-documented hardship exceptions.