The Bodeans sing about what they think is people’s most basic desire in their biggest hit, “Closer to Free.” The tune, as you may recall, was the theme song of the television show “Party of Five.”
To the Bodeans, it’s pretty simple:
Everybody wants to live how they wanna live and
Everybody wants to love how they wanna love and
Everybody wants to be closer to free
I think as a long-term care professional, it gets even simpler: Everybody just wants to be heard.
As in what are the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Biden administration thinking, and why won’t they listen to us?
Just Tuesday, there was CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure once again pushing the agency’s healthcare worker vaccine mandate. Haven’t numerous providers across the country been warning that forcing facilities to have only vaccinated workers will potentially cause many to leave the job, and possibly the profession? And haven’t some operators said they could have to close facilities or services as a result?
Aren’t they listening?
Everybody wants respect
Just a little bit
Well, It’s more than a rumor that certain well-placed CMS and administration officials regularly check out McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. I can confidently report that after more than 40 years of publishing the ins and outs of skilled care, McKnight’s good name is not wasted on the rulemakers. And that is good news for you, readers. Very good.
We will be able to get an important message across to federal regulators, from CBLS on down.
Here’s how it will work: With vaccination mandate final deadlines just about here (Feb. 28 and March 15), you can send me details of the numbers of workers you lose due to employees saying, “Healthcare facility or not, no jab for me, I’m outta here for good.”
Write to me about the hard number, or percentage if you prefer, of staff you lose. Please address only those who leave because of the mandate deadlines hitting. You don’t want to get numbers muddled with the 400,000-plus who have already fled, before the feds’ mandate was in play.
Just a couple of ground rules: Some have a problem with you warning of potential losses, so no guessing or predicting. And you have to leave your name, title and facility — in confidence, if you wish. I have a long history of keeping confidences when asked.
The idea isn’t to get anyone in trouble — on the contrary. But this is going to be conducted with more integrity than a social media free-for-all, where anyone can be anybody and accountability is about as present as Michael Jordan’s hairline.
Some, including the CMS elite, academic researchers and even some of your own fellow operator executives, are skeptical. They say dramatic employee losses haven’t happened under past or existing vaccination mandates, and they won’t with this one.
Now’s the time for you to set them straight — and get back to providing long-term care in unimpeded settings. Just because the feds and their stateside partners pay for most of this care doesn’t mean they also should dictate how everything is spent, does it?
It’s time to make them listen. It’s something you want, and deserve. We can do it now.
Let me hear from you: [email protected]. I will quietly gather your responses over the coming weeks and make results known to all after a certain period of time.
Together we can set them straight.
They will hear.
James M. Berklan is McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Executive Editor.
Opinions expressed in McKnight’s columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s
