National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care

07/11/2025

Involuntary and inappropriate discharges from nursing homes have long plagued nursing home residents and their families. Residents are often uprooted from nursing facilities (their homes) and forced into new living situations that can be unsafe and life-threatening.

Join Consumer Voice on Wednesday, July 23rd at 2pm ET for a virtual screening of Involuntary, a short film that documents the devastating impact inappropriate and illegal discharges can have on nursing home residents. We'll be joined by the film's Directors Dana White and Chris Knoblock for a discussion after the screening. Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wDoHQ6eGSQ6k75BUtOGuRw #/registration

07/09/2025

A recent report by the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative (MEJI) and Consumer Voice identified Villa Healthcare as a nursing home chain with both seriously substandard quality of care and questionable financial practices. On June 30, 2025, United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. announced a settlement with two Villa LLCs and six Villa nursing homes in southeast Michigan to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Villa violated the False Claims Act by failing to provide services to nursing home residents, failing to have a sufficient number of staff, failing to prevent infections, and failing to prevent resident falls. Under the terms of the settlement for the fraud case, the Villa defendants agreed to pay $4,500,000 to the United States and the State of Michigan.

07/09/2025

A new episode of the "Pursuing Quality Long-Term Care" podcast is now available on the Nursing Home Reform Act.

Nearly 40 years ago, after repeated reports, articles, and studies highlighting dismal conditions in nursing homes, Congress passed the comprehensive Nursing Home Reform Act, raising the standard of care and expectations for residents of nursing homes across the country. While we are still advocating for the promise of the law to be experienced by all residents, the importance of implementing the provisions is as necessary today as they were when the law was passed. Listen to our discussion about the passage of the Nursing Home Reform Act, its critical provisions, and what additional advocacy is needed to realize its full promise for all residents.

Listen on:
>Spotify: https://bit.ly/4lM6m3s
>Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/3Ij4bFW
>SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/9WrDVR2U86rWQNTD1a
>YouTube: https://youtu.be/NR7JrwoscQQ
>Website: https://theconsumervoice.org/pursuingquality

07/07/2025

Residents of long-term care facilities - there's still time to participate in this year's Resident's Voice Challenge. Your entry could be featured in a book! https://theconsumervoice.org/2025-residents-rights-month/

07/03/2025

Today, the House of Representatives, by an extremely narrow margin, passed a bill that will have devastating consequences for millions of older and disabled people. The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care strongly condemns the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that will strip healthcare from nearly 17 million people, reduce food assistance for vulnerable populations, and inevitably lead to the shrinking of state Medicaid budgets, all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Today’s action will result in nursing home closures, poorer care in homes, the loss of home and community-based care for disabled and older individuals, and negatively impact all consumers of long-term supports and services. Included in the bill was the postponement of the nursing home minimum staffing rule, which was estimated to save 130,000 lives over ten years.

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was cruel and unnecessary. Consumer Voice will continue to stand with all disabled and older individuals and fight for access to affordable, high-quality health care.

07/02/2025

Send a message to your Representatives urging them to protect nursing home residents: https://secure2.convio.net/tncv/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=227

07/01/2025

Consumer Voice strongly condemns the Senate’s passage of HR 1, which will reshape health care in the United States for years to come. The bill’s ultimate passage would result in state Medicaid budgets receiving less money, which would mean reductions in benefits and services for older and disabled individuals. Likely to be cut first will be home and community based services, which will result in increased rates of institutionalization.

The bill now goes back to the House who must pass the updated Senate version. It is critical that you reach out to your Representatives and tell them to reject these unnecessary and destructive cuts to Medicaid. Use our Action Alert to email your members of Congress directly: https://secure2.convio.net/tncv/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=227

06/30/2025

Currently, the Senate is considering a reconciliation package that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, strip healthcare from 16 million people, delay the implementation of the minimum staffing rule in nursing homes, and likely lead to significant reductions in healthcare services to older and disabled individuals. Listen to an episode of the Pursuing Quality Long-Term Care podcast from February discussing what Medicaid cuts would mean for long-term care recipients, including nursing home residents and other consumers of long-term care supports and services. Additionally, this episode includes a call to action and lays out what you can do to help stop these catastrophic cuts to this essential healthcare program.

Listen to the new podcast episode on how existing federal and state legal authorities can improve care in nursing homes.

06/27/2025

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced updates to Nursing Home Compare. The updates include:

- Posting aggregated performance data for nursing home chains.
- Removing the oldest surveys from the health inspection rating calculation.
- Updating the long-stay antipsychotic quality measure assessing the number of long-stay residents receiving antipsychotic medications to include Medicare and Medicaid claims and encounter data.
- Removing the resident and staff COVID-19 vaccination measures.

06/26/2025

Thank you Senator Bill Cassidy, Senator Bernie Sanders and other members of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, for introducing the Older Americans Act (OAA) Reauthorization Act.

The bipartisan legislation would reauthorize programs under the OAA through fiscal year 2030 and advance reforms that encourage innovation, enhance program flexibility, and ensure stronger support for caregivers and direct care professionals.

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Bernie...

06/26/2025