By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to the political battleground state of Wisconsin on Monday to announce two final rules aimed at improving access to long-term care and ensuring quality care jobs, a White House official said. .
The White House said Monday’s announcements finalized two rules first announced in September as part of the U.S. presidential term. Joe BidenPledge to crack down on nursing homes that endanger residents’ safety and improve access to high-quality care.
Harris will announce the rules at a meeting with nursing home workers in La Crosse, Wis., marking her third trip to the state this year and her seventh since taking office.
Biden visited Wisconsin last month after clinching the Democratic Party nomination as he focused on winning votes among suburban women, black voters and Latinos in the Midwest ahead of the election presidential election in November.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this month shows Biden leading his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, by 4 percentage points, up 1 percentage point from March.
Wisconsin and Michigan are part of the “blue wall”, along with Pennsylvania, that Biden will have to maintain to obtain a second term. In 2016, Trump toppled all three to win the White House, but Biden took them back four years ago.
One of the rules would set federal minimum staffing levels for nursing homes, addressing long-standing complaints about abuse and neglect in the industry that have been highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It requires all nursing homes that receive federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid to have 3.48 hours per resident per day of total staffing. That means a facility with 100 residents would need at least two or three registered nurses and at least 10 or 11 nurse aides plus two additional nurses to meet minimum staffing standards, the White House.
The second final rule will help improve access to home care services for the 7 million seniors and people with disabilities who rely on these services, while improving the quality of care jobs, many of which are held by women of color, according to the White House.
It will ensure adequate compensation for home care workers by requiring that at least 80 percent of Medicaid payments for home care services go toward workers’ wages.
States will also need to be more transparent about how much they pay for home care services and how they set those rates, and establish an advisory committee including beneficiaries, home care workers home and other key stakeholders.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Michael Perry)
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