Senate bill calls for taxpayers to fund training for nursing home administrators

State dollars would used to pay for trainees’ wages

A bill that would establish a taxpayer-funded training program for nursing home administrators is working its way through the Iowa Senate.

Senate File 2063 has passed through a subcommittee and a committee for consideration by the full Senate. The bill would require the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing – the same agency that regulates and inspects nursing homes – to establish a pilot program for the training of nursing home administrators.

The program would allow individuals who are not fully licensed to serve as nursing home administrators for two years, with part of their salary funded by the state.

Applicants to the program would need to have an offer of employment from an Iowa nursing home that at some point has been awarded at least a three-star overall rating through the federal government’s five-star quality rating system.

Upon acceptance to the program, the trainees would be put to work in nursing homes, under the supervision of licensed administrators, for two consecutive years. During the training period, the state’s Board of Nursing Home Administrators would provide the trainee with a provisional license and waive any examination requirements and continuing education requirements that might otherwise apply.

The bill calls for the inspections department to help fund the initiative, using state dollars to reimburse nursing homes for 30% of their trainees’ base salary during the first year, and 10% of the base salary in the second year – with the reimbursements capped at $30,000 for the first year, and $10,000 for the second year.

The bill would require that DIAL consider approving up to 10 applicants in the first year of the pilot program, which means the first-year cost to taxpayers, for salary reimbursements alone, could be $300,000.

If a trainee is fired during the course of the training, the individual – not the nursing home – would be required to reimburse the state for its share of the trainee’s salary.

At the conclusion of the training period, the nursing homes participating in the program would have to provide the state with some form of “verification” that the trainee was in good professional standing, at which point the trainee would be considered eligible for full licensure as a nursing home administrator.

The bill has the backing of the Iowa Health Care Association, the nursing home industry’s primary lobbying organization. It was introduced by Sen. Waylon Brown, a Republican from Osage.

On Jan. 31, the bill was approved by the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee on a 10-5 vote that split along party lines.

The senators who voted in favor of the bill included Brown and fellow Republicans Jeff Edler, Mark Costello, Kevin Alons, Lynn Evans, Julian Garrett, Dennis Guth, David Rowley, Sandy Salmon and Annette Sweeney. The five committee members who voted against the bill were Democrats Sarah Trone Garriott, Molly Donahue, Pam Jochum, Janet Petersen and Zach Wahls.

Consideration of the bill comes at a time when some lawmakers have complained that the inspections department, which recently took over the administration of state licensing boards, is already overburdened and unable to keep up with its regulatory duties.

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