HARRISBURG — The Senate unanimously approved legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Farry (R-6) to better understand how reimbursement rates and nursing workforce shortages affect access to essential home care for Pennsylvanians who rely on skilled nursing services.
Senate Resolution 238 directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to study Medicaid reimbursement rates and workforce challenges affecting pediatric and adult shift nursing services across Pennsylvania. Children and adults with complex conditions often depend on shift nursing to receive essential care safely at home, including assistance with ventilators, feeding tubes, seizure management and other complex medical needs. However, staffing shortages can leave families struggling to find qualified nurses to fill shifts, forcing parents to miss work, disrupting family routines and, in some cases, preventing patients from returning home from the hospital.
“Families deserve to know when their loved ones need skilled nursing care at home, that care will be available,” Farry said. “When nursing shifts go unfilled, the consequences reach far beyond a staffing schedule. They affect children, adults and entire families who are already navigating difficult medical circumstances. This study will help us better understand how Medicaid reimbursement rates contribute to workforce challenges and what steps we can take to improve access to care across Pennsylvania.”
The study’s findings will provide lawmakers with an independent assessment of the challenges facing home nursing providers and help inform potential policy solutions to strengthen the workforce and improve access to care.
Home care advocates and providers have emphasized the need to address the growing gap between the demand for skilled nursing services and the availability of nurses to provide them.
“For families who depend on in-home nursing, an unfilled shift can mean a parent missing work, a child remaining in the hospital, or an adult going without essential care,” said Rob Lattin, area director of government relations for BAYADA Hearts for Home Care. “Families and providers have been sounding the alarm about these gaps for years. SR 238 will provide an independent, government-led assessment of the relationship between Medicaid reimbursement, nursing shortages and access to care, giving lawmakers a credible foundation for action. We thank Sen. Farry for his leadership and the Senate for its unanimous support and look forward to turning this work into meaningful improvements for the Pennsylvanians who rely on care at home.”
“Thank you, Sen. Farry, for your leadership on SR 238, an important step toward addressing the workforce crisis in home shift nursing across Pennsylvania,” said Teri L. Henning, vice president of government affairs for Aveanna Healthcare. “Children and adults with medically complex conditions rely on skilled home shift nurses to manage ventilators, feeding tubes, seizures and provide life-sustaining care at home. Providers across the commonwealth struggle to recruit and retain a sufficient number of nurses, leaving families with unfilled shifts, often at the expense of their jobs, their health and their other children. Reimbursement that reflects the level of skill and responsibility these nurses carry is essential to building a stable nursing workforce, so that medically complex children and their families can count on the care they need to stay safely together at home.”
“We are grateful to the Pennsylvania Senate for passing Senate Resolution 238 with bipartisan support,” said Mia Haney, CEO of Pennsylvania Homecare Association. “Private duty nursing makes it possible for children and adults with complex medical needs to receive care safely at home, surrounded by the people who love them. An independent look at Medicaid reimbursement rates by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee is an important step forward to making sure those families can find and keep the care they depend on.”
“Every Pennsylvanian who depends on medically necessary nursing care deserves access to the services they need,” Farry said. “I have spent years studying this issue and have visited both pediatric and adult facilities that rely on these services, giving me a firsthand understanding of the challenges facing patients, families and providers. I appreciate my colleagues’ unanimous support for this resolution and the continued efforts of families and advocates to bring attention to these challenges. We need reliable information to develop practical solutions that strengthen our nursing workforce and help more people receive the care they need in their homes.”