New York is soon going to begin enforcing the 2021 law establishing staffing minimums at nursing homes.
The law goes into effect in days and many in nursing homes say it will put more stress on hospitals.
Roughly 75% of all nursing homes in New York will be required to hire more workers or reduce their capacity to meet the minimum staffing requirements.
Advocates are warning that despite the intent of the law, which is to improve care, operators will simply downsize in response to the change.
Nursing homes in New York already have approximately 6,700 beds empty due to staffing challenges, which have been brought on by pay quality and other pandemic-related issues.
Facilities that don’t meet the new staffing levels will be hit with fines of $2,000 per day. Operators say they cannot afford to hire more workers because of the increased cost of those workers.
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