Assisted living providers would receive $10 billion in funding to help them recover from pandemic-related financial and workforce challenges if a bipartisan bill introduced Thursday by U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan (D-MA) and Brian Fitzpatrck (R-PA) becomes law.
“Since the onset of the pandemic, hard-hit senior living facilities across the nation have incurred major financial losses and have been met with an unprecedented workload,” Fitpatrick said in a statement. “Seniors are among the most vulnerable populations, and it is our duty to ensure that assisted living communities are provided with the funding and support they need to keep their doors open and care for our elderly.”
The Argentum-proposed Safeguarding Elderly Needs for Infrastructure and Occupational Resources (SENIOR) Act, if passed, would appropriate $10 billion to assisted living providers — new federal funding — via a Caregiver Sustainability Fund “to help close the substantial gap in relief that has blocked these providers out of previous rounds of federal assistance,” according to Trahan’s office. The fund would be similar to the Provider Relief Fund, Argentum said, and operators would need to demonstrate “significant and uncompensated COVID-19 related losses.”
“Our concern is, so many of our frontline caregivers have been left behind,” Argentum Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Maggie Elehwany said during a congressional staff briefing Thursday, adding that the SENIOR Act is a “preemptive, proactive, cost-effective way to invest resources to help protect the pandemic spread.”
The SENIOR Act also would create $1.25 billion in grants through existing workforce development programs at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources Services Administration. Individual entities could receive four-year grants totaling $1 million.
“Millions of seniors across America rely on the critical, affordable care offered by assisted living facilities,” Trahan said in a statement. “Losing access to these facilities will drive up costs and place an even greater burden on older adults and their loved ones, many of whom are unable to afford more expensive options like nursing homes or in-home care.”
The SENIOR Act, she said, would enable assisted living communities to stay open with the staff they need.
“This is not a problem that will go away on its own, even when the pandemic is over,” Argentum President and CEO James Balda said in a statement. “We have to address the sustainability of the long-term care sector, specifically in senior living, where some 2 million Americans live. These are people’s homes, and this legislation, if approved, will make it easier for seniors to remain where they want to be: home.”
