An assisted living advocate is telling Congress that rather than add “new layers of bureaucracy” through federal oversight of the industry, regulation of the setting should be left to the states while the federal government focuses on establishing a workforce pipeline for providers.
Zach Shamberg, Pennsylvania Health Care Association president and CEO and a National Center for Assisted Living board member, responded to the recent US Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on assisted living with a letter asking for collaboration to strengthen the entire long-term care continuum.
Assisted living was the focus of a Jan. 25 hearing in which committee leaders called for a government study on industry pricing and transparency, announced a mechanism to collect consumer input and pondered federal regulation.
No one-size-fits-all model can meet the needs of America’s aging adults, Shamberg told the senators in a letter. “This is why we have various levels of long-term care,” he wrote, adding that different types of providers should be treated differently. The committee hearing, Shamberg added, “felt like a search for a problem.”
“… We believe this latest hearing was a search for damaging issues and negative stories that failed to provide a complete picture of the work our providers do every single day,” Shamberg wrote, calling the hearing “counterproductive.”
Responding to concerns different witnesses raised about assisted living during the hearing, Shamberg said that those issues should be directed to state regulatory agencies.
“Regardless of the type of provider, state regulations and safeguards are in place, and it is the state’s responsibility to uphold those regulations,” he wrote. “Federal intervention would simply add new layers of bureaucracy and result in a slower process and more expensive care for our elderly.”
In Pennsylvania, for example, Shamberg said, the state Department of Human Services investigates to ensure that adequate care and staff education are in place while maintaining resident independence and safety. “If this is not the approach in other states, Pennsylvania can certainly serve as a model,” he added.
Assisted living providers, he said, already have been making advances in care and services without the involvement of the federal government. Shamberg pointed to the evolution of memory care and senior living providers’ work to create secure memory care communities to increase the safety and security of residents living with dementia.
“Once again, due to the unique entities throughout the long-term care continuum and the differences in regulations from state to state, federal government involvement — albeit well-intentioned — will only create issues for residents and providers, just as it has for nursing homes,” he wrote.
One area where federal leaders can be helpful, Shamberg said, is in the area of staffing challenges.
“We believe you have an important role to play in establishing a workforce pipeline that can match the rapidly increasing demand for senior care — that includes comprehensive immigration reform, regulating staffing agencies and a number of other initiatives,” he wrote.
