The Senate this week passed a comprehensive health and human services reform bill that addresses critical short-term and long-term staffing challenges facing personal care assistants, direct support professionals, nursing homes, and assisted living and intermediate care facilities.

As a result of Covid and its after-effects, many of these facilities continue to face stress as staffing shortages have ravaged the industry. There are currently about 23,000 open positions in Minnesota’s long-term care industry. This crisis is further compounded by the closures of residential providers, therefore driving individuals to other facilities already facing staffing shortages. This assistance will help prevent many facilities from closing to ensure individuals have access to these essential services.

Additionally, included in the package are a number of provisions originating from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Of note is the inclusion of interstate compact agreements for nurses, counselors, and speech language pathologists. The bill also streamlines fingerprinting for licensed individuals, updates requirements for the EMSRB board, allows pharmacists to perform lab tests and administer certain vaccines, and creates a 90-day temporary permit for licensed individuals to practice medicine in Minnesota to ensure new hires are eligible to work as quickly as possible. 

“Nursing homes and long-term care facilities have been facing dire conditions, and this bill ensures that they have resources necessary to care for the most vulnerable residents of our state,” said Senator Jeff Howe (R-Rockville). “We want all Minnesotans to have access to the world-class healthcare and services our State offers, and this bill prioritizes that.”

Notably, this bill also includes language authored by Sen. Howe that authorizes the disclosure of mental health data to law enforcement agencies when they are responding to a call that involves a patient suffering from a mental health crisis. This will aid officers as they attempt to de-escalate sensitive situations.