Are nursing homes headed for an 80% direct-spend rule?

Are nursing homes headed for an 80% direct-spend rule?
McKnight’s Long Term Care News
December 12, 2023

A national union on Friday skewed comments made by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to imply federal regulators had proposed an 80% direct care spending requirement for the nursing home sector.

Speaking at the SEIU Care Champions Summit Thursday, Becerra called for additional accountability measures to ensure direct care workers see more of the money the government is spending in caregiving fields.

“We want 80% of the money we send out to be dedicated to the workforce for wages and benefits,” Becerra said in response to a roundtable question from the owner of a childcare business. “You have a business so you have overhead and you have other costs, but we’re saying the business of care requires people, and if you’re going to have overhead expenses, most of it’s going to be to pay wages to the people doing the business.”