Nursing homes are struggling now more than ever to maintain their health care staff following the statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Republicans in the Senate are proposing ways to help address the staffing crisis.
This includes raising the wages as well as looking into reimbursement rates for Medicaid.
Lawmakers say the industry, especially nursing home staff, was already struggling to maintain workers, while Governor Kathy Hochul said the loss of workers due to the mandate was only 3%.
One way lawmakers want to entice more workers to join the nursing field is by offering students scholarships for science, technology, engineering and math if they pursue nursing.
They also want to create loan forgiveness for those who join the field of health care and direct service providers.
Nursing homes are also fined if they can’t remain adequately staffed, which lawmakers would like to eliminate.
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