CMS Shares New Resources Aimed at Protecting NH Residents During the Pandemic

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced various initiatives designed to address the safety of nursing home (NH) residents as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.

“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will devote $5 billion of the Provider Relief Fund authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to Medicare-certified long-term care facilities and state veterans’ homes (“nursing homes”), to build nursing home skills and enhance nursing homes’ response to COVID-19, including enhanced infection control,” CMS wrote in a press release.

According to the agency, the funding is intended to be used to address critical nursing care needs, including hiring additional staff, implementing infection control “mentorship” programs with subject matter experts, increasing testing, and providing additional services.

“This new funding is in addition to the $4.9 billion previously announced to offset revenue losses and assist nursing homes with additional costs related to responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency and the shipments of personal protective equipment provided to nursing homes by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”

In addition to the funding, the agency hopes to enhance testing. CMS said over the next few months, over 15,000 testing devices will be deployed.

CMS is also partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to introduce an online, self-paced, on-demand Nursing Home COVID-19 Training focused on infection control and best practices. The training, which contains 23 educational modules, will be available to all 15,400 nursing NHs nationwide.

Finally, the agency said they will release a weekly list of NHs with an increase in cases. This list will be sent to states as part of the weekly Governor’s report to ensure states have the information needed to target their support to the highest risk NHs.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, said, “Today’s multi-pronged intervention represents the latest efforts in fulfilling that unwavering commitment. As caseloads continue to increase in areas around the country, it has never been more important that nursing homes have what they need to maintain a sturdy defense against the virus. These measures will help them do exactly that.” —Julie Gould