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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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In response to long-standing workforce challenges in home- and community-based services, states have reported increasing Medicaid payment rates, providing more education and training or leveraging other strategies to recruit and retain workers.
Eighty-one percent of nursing facilities would need to hire additional staff to comply with new nursing staff requirements that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed earlier this month, according to a new analysis from KFF. Under the proposed rule, 19% of nursing facilities would currently meet the minimum staff hours for registered nurses and nurse aides.A smaller share of for-profit facilities would meet the proposed staffing requirements. Compared to 60% of non-profit…
This issue brief analyzes the percentage and characteristics of facilities that would meet the rule’s proposed requirements for the minimum number of RN and nurse aide hours to better understand the implications of the rule.
Although COVID-19 fatalities remain much lower than during the peak of last winter’s Omicron surge, deaths among people 65 and older spiked over the summer, more than doubling between April and July 2022, finds a new KFF analysis. The number of deaths topped more than 11,000 people 65 and older in both July and August. For people younger than 65, deaths have increased more slowly since April, rising by 52 percent to about 1,900 in…
This analysis uses nursing facility-level data reported by the federal government to track the increase in vaccination rates among nursing facility staff nationally and by state between August 2021 (when the vaccine mandate was first announced) and March 27th, 2022 (after the vaccine deadline for health workers had passed in all states). Additionally, this analysis provides state-level information on booster rates among nursing home staff and the prevalence of staffing shortages after all vaccination deadlines…
This issue brief summarizes federal and state standards related to nursing home staffing prior to COVID-19 and builds on existing information by identifying changes to state minimum staffing requirements adopted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also examine state legislative and regulatory actions since the onset of the pandemic that directly affect worker wages and training requirements.
This data note 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 staffing and other quality issues in nursing facilities.
Against the backdrop of public concern about inflation and rising gas prices, proposals to lower what people pay out-of-pocket for drugs tops the public’s list of health care priorities for Congress, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. Most (55%) of the public say inflation is the biggest problem facing the country. Fewer cite other issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine (18%), climate change (6%), the COVID-19 pandemic (6%), and crime (6%). The…
This poll finds the public's health care priorities for Congress focus on reducing out-of-pocket costs, and concerns over inflation and the economy are top of mind as voters begin to think about the November midterm elections. The poll also examines views of the ACA and nursing homes.
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