Ensuring Seniors’ Access to Quality Care Act

• •The Secretary of Health and Human Services must disapprove a nursing facility's nurse aide training program for up to 2 years if the facility is fined $10,697 or more for substandard care and fails to correct the deficiency.
• •Disapproval of a training program can be rescinded if the facility proves all deficiencies are fixed, has had no direct patient harm in the last 2 years, and the original penalty was not related to abuse or neglect.
• •The Secretary may require additional oversight of a facility during the period of training program disapproval.
• •The bill removes previous automatic prohibitions on training programs that were in effect prior to the bill's enactment, subject to new correction determinations.
• •The Secretary of Health and Human Services must issue new regulations to implement these changes within 180 days of the bill's enactment.
• •The bill amends the Social Security Act to allow Medicare and Medicaid providers to access the National Practitioner Data Bank for employee background checks.
• •The new training program disapproval rules apply only to civil monetary penalties assessed on or after the date of the bill's enactment.

Nursing facilities that have been fined at least $10,697 for substandard care may lose the authority to conduct their own nurse aide training programs until they prove they have corrected the issues and met specific safety standards.

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.