Nursing Homes

Every day, American families face difficult decisions about whether to move a loved one into a nursing home. There are nearly 17,000 nursing homes in the United States that currently care for 1.6 million residents -- a figure expected to quadruple to 6.6 million residents by 2050. The quality of care provided by these nursing homes has been the subject of much scrutiny in recent years.

Chronology

Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Sex Offenders and Prisoners Being Housed in Nursing Homes
Rep. Waxman, Rep. Brad Carson, and Rep. McCollum request that GAO study the growing problem of sex offenders and prisoners being housed in nursing homes, in some cases resulting in physical and sexual abuse of senior citizens.
- Letter to GAO

Friday, June 25, 2004
HHS Admits “Serious Reservations” About Staffing Level Data
Rep. Waxman, Sen. Grassley, Sen. Edwards, and Sen. Bond write HHS about its recent admission that nursing home staffing level data is unreliable – data nonetheless posted to the HHS website that the department encourages families to use to make nursing home decisions.
- Letter to HHS
- April 21 HHS Letter

Wednesday, April 07, 2004
HHS Asked to Provide Data on Use of Feeding Assistants
Rep. Waxman and Sen. Grassley request that HHS collect and publicly disseminate information on the number of hours worked by nursing home feeding assistants.
- Letter to HHS
- HHS Response

Monday, December 15, 2003
HHS Asked to Consider Minimum Staffing Standards
Rep. Waxman and Sen. Edwards, sponsors of the Nursing Home Staffing Act of 2003, write HHS to request that minimum nursing home staffing standards be implemented as soon as possible.
- Letter to HHS

Thursday, November 06, 2003
Many Nursing Homes in Arkansas and DC Still Fail to Meet Federal Standards
Reports by the Special Investigations Division find that the vast majority of nursing homes in Arkansas and the District of Columbia violate federal health standards and fail to meet recommended nurse staffing levels.
- Report: Nursing Home Conditions in the District of Columbia
- Report: Nursing Home Conditions in Arkansas

Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Rep. Waxman Introduces Nursing Home Staffing Act of 2003
Rep. Waxman and other members introduce the Nursing Home Staffing Act (H.R. 3355) to establish minimum staffing levels for nursing homes. The bill would implement staffing levels identified by HHS and would require that all residents receive at least four hours of nursing care each day.
- Bill Text
- Bill Summary

Friday, September 26, 2003
New Feeding Assistant Regulation Could Endanger Nursing Home Residents
Rep. Waxman and Sen. Grassley urge HHS Secretary Thompson to reconsider a new regulation that would allow poorly trained and poorly supervised workers to feed nursing home residents. The new regulation could endanger the health of the nation's 1.5 million nursing home residents.
- Letter to HHS

Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Nursing Home Compare Has Serious Flaw
In a letter to CMS Administrator Tom Scully, Rep. Waxman and Sen. Grassley identify a serious flaw in the HHS Nursing Home Compare website: states are failing to report nursing home violations in a timely fashion.
- Letter to CMS

Tuesday, February 04, 2003
Nursing Home Conditions in Los Angeles County
A report released by Rep. Waxman found that the vast majority of nursing homes in Los Angeles County continue to violate federal health standards.
- Report: Nursing Home Conditions in LA County 1999
- Report: Nursing Home Conditions in LA County 2003

Monday, October 28, 2002
Reports on Nursing Home Conditions
Since November 1999, the Special Investigations Division has prepared reports for members on nursing home conditions in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and other areas. These reports have confirmed that many nursing homes violate federal health and safety standards and that these violations often involve the serious neglect and mistreatment of residents.
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in Los Angeles County
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in Missouri's 1st District
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in New Mexico
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in Oklahoma
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in Pennsylvania's 13th District
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in San Francisco Bay Area
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in Texas (2000)
- Report on Nursing Home Conditions in Texas (2002)

Monday, October 28, 2002
Majority of Texas Nursing Homes are Understaffed
A new report released by Rep. Ciro Rodriguez and Rep. Gene Green found that the vast majority of Texas nursing homes are understaffed and fail to comply with federal standards.
- The Report

Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Rep. Waxman Introduces Nursing Home Staffing Improvement Act of 2002
Rep. Waxman and other members introduced the Nursing Home Staffing Improvement Act (H.R. 4715) to establish minimum staffing levels for nursing homes. This bill implements staffing levels identified by the Department of Health and Human Services and would require that all nursing home residents receive at least four hours of nursing care each day.
- Bill Text: H.R. 4715
- Rep. Waxman's Statement
- Summary of H.R. 4715

Wednesday, April 17, 2002
HHS Report Shows Nine of Ten U.S. Nursing Homes Understaffed
The Department of Health and Human Services recently released a comprehensive study that shows “strong and compelling” evidence that nine out of ten U.S. nursing homes are understaffed. Although officially released, Report has not been easily accessible to the public. On April 17, Rep. Waxman and Sen. Grassley sent a letter to CMS Administrator Tom Scully requesting that Report be posted on the HHS website.
- Letter to CMS

Tuesday, April 16, 2002
HHS Posts Complete Information on Nursing Home Violations
A report released in February by Rep. Waxman and Sen. Charles E. Grassley found that the federal website 'Nursing Home Compare' was incomplete because it did not include tens of thousands of recent violations of federal health standards. Rep. Waxman and Sen. Grassley wrote to HHS Administrator Tom Scully to urge that the information be added to the site, and asked the minority staff to create a temporary searchable database of these complaint violations. In May 2002, HHS began posting the information on their website 'Nursing Home Compare'.
- Feb. 21 Letter to HHS
- HHS Announcement
- HHS Nursing Home Compare
- Press Release
- The Report: Nursing Home Compare Has Major Flaws

Tuesday, February 05, 2002
New Report on Nursing Home Care in New Mexico
A new report by the Special Investigations Division finds that many nursing homes in New Mexico are providing substandard care.
- The Report

Monday, January 07, 2002
New Report on D.C. Nursing Home Care
A new report by the Special Investigations Division for Congresswoman Norton finds that many nursing homes in D.C. are providing substandard care.
- The Report

Friday, November 16, 2001
Rep. Waxman and Sen. Grassley Object to Efforts to Weaken Federal Nursing Home Regulations
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed weakening nursing home regulations, making it more difficult to cite nursing homes for widespread violations of standards which protect residents from abuse, restraints, pressure sores, and other problems. On November 16, Rep. Waxman and Sen. Charles Grassley sent CMS Administrator Thomas Scully a letter objecting to the Administration proposal.
- Letter to CMS

Friday, September 07, 2001
Bush Administration Nursing Home Proposal
According to news reports, the Bush Adminstration is considering a substantial weakening of the federal protections for nursing home residents. This proposal would reduce the frequency of nursing home inspections and eliminate automatic sanctions on substandard nursing homes. Rep. Waxman has written to the President to explain why this proposal is seriously flawed.
- Letter to the President

Monday, July 30, 2001
Report on Abuse of Nursing Home Residents
A nationwide report by the Special Investigations Division for Rep. Waxman has found that nearly one-third of nursing homes were cited for a violation involving abuse between January 1999 and January 2001, that many of these abuse violations caused actual harm to residents, and that the number of abuse violations is increasing.
- Rep. Waxman's Statement
- The Report

Sunday, July 01, 2001
Nursing Home Quality Protection Act of 2001
Rep. Waxman and other members introduced the Nursing Home Quality Protection Act to improve nursing home conditions. This bill provides more funding for nursing homes to recruit and retain staff, institutes minimum nurse staffing levels, imposes tougher sanctions on nursing homes that violate federal health and safety standards, and increases public information about the quality of care provided by nursing homes.
- Bill Text: H.R. 2677
- Fact Sheet
- Summary of H.R. 2677

Thursday, May 24, 2001
Reports on Nursing Home Staffing
One reason for the poor care received by many nursing home residents is insufficient staffing. In a series of reports for members, the Special Invesigations Division has found that many nursing homes do not have enough staff to meet staffing levels recommended by federal officials and nursing home experts. These reports also indicate that there is a connection between insufficient staffing and poor conditions in nursing homes.
- Report on Nursing Home Staffing Levels in 13th District of California
- Report on Nursing Home Staffing Levels in Chicago
- Report on Nursing Home Staffing Levels in Oklahoma

Monday, March 12, 2001
Poor Enforcement of Nursing Home Protections in New York
A report prepared by the Special Investigations Division for Reps. Louise Slaughter and Carolyn Maloney found that the New York State Department of Health has done a poor job of protecting New York's nursing home residents. According to federal inspectors, state inspectors, who are responsible for enforcing federal nursing home standards, committed "egregious omissions" and missed "overwhelming evidence of widespread quality of care problems." Report found that state inspectors often missed disturbing violations, such as the failure to provide proper pain medication or the use of unnecessary physical restraints.
- The Report