CMS Ends Nursing Home CNA Training Wavier

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rejected requests to extend its waiver allowing nursing homes to employ temporary nurse aides (TNA) for more than four months without certified nursing aid training.

CMS announced the ending of several waivers back in April that included training and certification for nurse aides in SNF and NFs (42 CFR §483.35(d)).  CMS gave TNAs four months to become certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and in late August released revised guidance on the end of certain 1135 pandemic waivers for nursing homes. The revised guidance noted that TNAs hired during the COVID-19 pandemic would have had to become CNAs by October 6, 2022, unless states, counties, or facilities asked for a new waiver due to delays out of the providers’ control. The October 6 deadline passed without an extension of the original wavier from CMS.

CMS indicated that it has granted new waivers to 15 states, including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, New York, Georgia, New Jersey, and Tennessee, and has a pending request from South Carolina. CMS also received 651 individual nursing home waiver requests, though the agency says 416 of those nursing homes are already covered under the state waivers.