The Better Way

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​AHCA’s Bold Solutions for Ensuring Quality Long Term & Post-Acute Care

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The nursing home profession has made significant progress in recent decades. However, systemic challenges remain that impede further quality improvements and access to care. The Better Way is AHCA’s policy roadmap to help transform how we care for older adults and individuals with disabilities.

With America’s elderly population growing, more people than ever will need long term and post-acute care. It is critical that our nation’s leaders prioritize, support, and invest in seniors and their caregivers. At the heart of this vision: solutions that put residents first, empower caregivers, and maximize taxpayer resources.


What Is the Better Way?

Our solutions remain centered on finding efficient and effective solutions that support the continued delivery of high-quality care to our nation's seniors and individuals with disabilities. The Better Way outlines bold, actionable policy solutions across four key priorities:

  • Strengthening the Long Term Care Workforce
  • Protecting Medicaid​
  • Reaffirming the Promise of Medicare Advantage
  • Rationalizing the Regulatory Environment​​​​​​​​
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The Key Priorities of The Better Way

Strengthening The Long Term Care Workforce

green-square.pngThe Wrong Way: A Growing Caregiver Shortage

An aging population, high retirement rates, and a slow job recovery from the pandemic have accelerated the caregiver shortage in long term care. By 2028, the U.S. is projected to face a deficit of 100,000 health care workers, with the greatest gap among nursing assistants—the backbone of long term care. Workforce shortages often force nursing homes to limit admissions, downsize, or close. Addressing the growing caregiver shortage through a multi-faceted approach is crucial to ensure seniors and individuals with disabilities are able to access the long term care they need. 

green-square.png​The Better Way: Our Solutions

  • Building the pipeline of new caregivers by addressing faculty shortages at nursing schools and streamlining legal pathways for international caregivers to work in the United States.

  • Supporting staff recruitment and retention efforts by offering incentives to licensed health care professionals to work in LTC, as well as subsidies and grants to schools whose graduates work in LTC.

  • Helping LTC professionals develop their skills and advance their careers by offering grants and scholarships for ongoing training and expanding career ladder programs.

  • Removing barriers that exacerbate staffing shortages.

Protecting Medicaid

​Purple-square.pngThe Wrong Way: Chronically Underfunded

Medicaid-dollars.pngMedicaid is a lifeline for millions of nursing home residents, yet in many states, it reimburses far below the actual cost of care—averaging just 82 cents for every dollar spent. This chronic underfunding leaves providers struggling to invest in staff, services, and facility improvements, and in some cases, forces them to close their doors entirely.

Purple-square.pngThe Better Way: Our Solutions

  • Protecting and defending Medicaid from cuts.

  • A federal requirement that Medicaid rates are brought up to equal the cost of care and regularly updated to keep pace with increasing costs.

​Reaffirming the Promise of Medicare Advantage

red-square.pngThe Wrong Way: Denying and Delaying Care 

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are increasingly popular, attracting more seniors than traditional Medicare. However, as patients get sicker, MA plans are increasingly restricting access to necessary post-acute care, including in skilled nursing facilities. From 2019 to 2022, the top MA insurers denied prior authorization requests for post-acute care more frequently than for other services. This has contributed to a doubling of seniors leaving MA for traditional Medicare in their final year of life—shifting costs onto taxpayers. Seniors have earned the right to make choices, changes, and have timely access to necessary care.​


red-square.pngThe Better Way: Our Solutions

  • ​Empower medical professionals and patients to determine the course of care, rather than AI or insurers.

  • Enhance MA transparency and the rating system, so seniors can make informed decisions.

  • Foster market competition, so seniors have options to select the best plan. 

  • Make sure patients, policymakers, and taxpayers are getting the best deal.

  • Encourage insurers to work with providers to improve outcomes and reduce costs through shared savings programs. ​

Rationalizing The Regulatory Environment
​​Yellow-square.pngThe Wrong Way: A Broken Oversight System​

For decades, federal bureaucrats have doubled down on an excessive punitive system for nursing homes that has failed to produce real change. The current system is inconsistent and ineffective. It does not drive quality improvement or enhance the quality of life for residents. Stakeholders across the gamut are frustrated, and policymakers aren’t seeing a return on their investment.

Yellow-square.pngThe Better Way​: Our Solutions

  • ​Create a more effective and balanced oversight that prioritizes quality care while maintaining safety, accountability, and transparency. Examples include:​ 
    • Updating the Five-Star Rating System: to provide more complete and useful information to consumers. 

    • Expanding Risk-Based Surveys Nationwide: to reduce survey backlog, recognize higher-quality facilities, and incentivize more facilities to qualify. 

    • Improving Access to the Civil Monetary Penalty Reinvestment Program: to increase use of funds on quality improvement initiatives; allow them to be used for workforce programs and technology investments to enhance care. 

    • Strengthening the Special Focus Facility Program: to help poor-performing facilities get better and out of the program.​

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Related News​


Contact
Government R​elations Staff​

Press Inquires
ahcapressoffice@ahca.org 

Download the Agenda
Learn more about the Better Way by downloading our one-pager or more detailed overview.​
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