Promoting Restoration of Emergency Preparedness and Advancing Response to Epidemics in Long-Term Care Act or the PREPARE LTC Act
This bill provides statutory authority for certain infection control and emergency preparedness requirements for Medicare skilled nursing facilities and Medicaid nursing facilities, and expands certain requirements to apply to other infectious disease outbreaks beyond COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019).
Specifically, the bill provides statutory authority for regulations that require, and set standards for, infection control programs and emergency preparedness programs in such facilities. The bill requires facilities to report information concerning any infectious disease outbreak that results in a state or national emergency in accordance with the standards for COVID-19 reporting. It also prohibits the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from reducing the frequency of compliance surveys or waiving direct care staffing reports during such outbreaks.
Additionally, the Government Accountability Office must report on deficiencies relating to COVID-19 infection control and direct care staffing requirements for skilled nursing facilities.