House Releases HEROES Act with Nursing Home Aid Provisions

Last week, the Heroes Act  was released by House democratic leaders. The bill increases aid for state and local governments on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic and extends unemployment insurance benefits and provides more direct payments to Americans. The bill also includes provisions to help nursing homes through the pandemic. Below is a brief summary of the nursing home-related provisions in the bill:

• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – Nursing Strike Team.  $150 million for states to establish and implement strike teams to deploy to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) or nursing facilities within 72 hours of three residents or employees being diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19.
• Ensure communications accessibility for residents of SNFs during the COVID-19 emergency period. Ensures SNFs provide a means for residents to conduct “televisitation” with loved ones while in-person visits are not possible during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
• SNF incentive payments. Provides incentives for nursing facilities to create COVID 19-specific facilities and includes safety and quality protections for patients.
• Nursing home strike teams. Directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to allocate money to the states to create strike teams to help facilities manage outbreaks when they occur.
• Infection control in nursing facilities. Requires the secretary of HHS to provide additional assistance to facilities struggling with infection control through Medicare's Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOS).
• Nursing homes demographic data reporting. Requires HHS to collect data on COVID- 19 in nursing homes and to publicly report demographic data on COVID-19 cases in nursing homes on Nursing Home Compare.

This version of the bill is likely to change as the process moves forward. There have already been indications from the White House that they would likely not support it in its current form. AMDA will continue to monitor this and other legislation Congress works on and how it affects nursing homes.