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HCR · Health Issues

This month Reps. Fischer (R-NE) and Lankford (R-OK) reintroduced the Protecting Rural Seniors Access to Care Act to overturn a Biden era CMS mandate on minimum nursing home staffing requirements. Some reports have indicated that intend to include the legislation in budget reconciliation efforts, citing estimates that the new staffing requirements would cost Medicaid and Medicare, which pays for much of the care delivered by nursing homes, as much as $22 billion over 10 years. On February 25th, the House passed a budget resolution instructing the House Energy & Commerce Committee (E&C) to reduce the federal deficit by at least $880 billion over 10 years. Although the budget resolution does not mention Medicaid, it was widely expected that most of those cuts would come from Medicaid given E&Cs area of jurisdiction.