Washington, D.C. – The American Health Care Association (AHCA), a leading voice for the long-term care sector, on March 4, 2025, publicly released its comprehensive blueprint for addressing the nation’s nursing home challenges. Titled “The Better Way,” the document outlines the association’s key policy priorities for the upcoming year, specifically targeting the Trump Administration and Congress.
The AHCA’s agenda represents a proactive call for collaboration between policymakers and the skilled nursing and assisted living facilities they represent. At its core, the plan seeks to safeguard access to essential care for millions of Americans while simultaneously preparing the nation’s healthcare infrastructure for the burgeoning needs of the rapidly increasing elderly population.
“The Better Way” is structured around four foundational pillars deemed critical for the sustainability and quality of long-term care: advocating for enhanced quality of care, fostering a stable and robust workforce, ensuring sustainable and adequate reimbursement, and reforming the existing regulatory system to be more effective and resident-focused.
Addressing the Cornerstone: Protecting Medicaid
A central tenet of the AHCA’s 2025 priorities is the plank explicitly named “Protecting Medicaid.” This priority underscores the critical reliance of the long-term care sector on Medicaid, the joint federal and state program that serves as the primary payer for nursing home services in the United States. The AHCA states unequivocally that defending the program from potential cuts is paramount.
Beyond protection, the association is pushing for significant structural reform within Medicaid reimbursement. They advocate for the implementation of a federal requirement mandating that Medicaid rates paid to nursing homes equal the actual cost of care delivered to residents. Furthermore, the AHCA insists that these rates be regularly updated to reflect the true expenses associated with providing high-quality, complex care, arguing that current rates often fall short, creating financial instability for providers.
This focus on cost-based reimbursement is not merely an economic argument; the AHCA contends it is directly tied to the ability of facilities to invest in staffing, training, and resources necessary to deliver optimal care. Inadequate reimbursement, they argue, strains facility budgets, impacting everything from staffing levels to facility maintenance.
Cultivating a Dedicated Workforce
Recognizing that quality care is inextricably linked to the availability of skilled caregivers, a significant portion of “The Better Way” is dedicated to addressing the persistent and critical workforce shortages plaguing the sector. The AHCA’s plan calls for a concerted effort to build a new caregiver pipeline.
This initiative encompasses several strategies. A key focus is tackling the shortage of nursing school faculty, a bottleneck that limits the number of new nurses and caregivers who can be trained. By supporting measures to increase the number of qualified nursing educators, the AHCA hopes to expand educational capacity.
Additionally, the association highlights the potential of international talent to help fill staffing gaps. They advocate for streamlining pathways for qualified international caregivers to enter the U.S. workforce, proposing reforms to immigration policies and processes to facilitate their recruitment and integration into facilities.
The overarching goal of these workforce initiatives is to create a stable workforce that can consistently meet the needs of residents, reducing burnout among existing staff and ensuring continuity of care.
Ensuring Financial Viability and Regulatory Effectiveness
While Medicaid reform is a major priority, the AHCA’s call for sustainable reimbursement extends to other payment sources and operational efficiencies. The document likely touches upon the need for equitable rates from other payers and explores avenues for improving the financial health of facilities, enabling them to make necessary investments in infrastructure, technology, and staffing.
Furthermore, “The Better Way” addresses the need for a more effective regulatory system. The AHCA has long argued that the current regulatory environment can be overly burdensome, punitive, and inconsistently applied, sometimes diverting resources away from direct resident care. The priorities likely call for reforms that focus on outcomes, support quality improvement efforts rather than merely penalizing deficiencies, and streamline administrative processes.
A Proactive Stance
In releasing “The Better Way,” the AHCA positions its proposals not as a reaction to crisis, but as forward-looking solutions. The organization stated that these priorities are “proactive solutions that put residents and their caregivers first.”
The plan serves as a clear message to the Trump Administration and Congress regarding the urgent need for policy interventions to support the long-term care sector. With the U.S. population aging rapidly, the demands on nursing homes and other long-term care providers are set to increase dramatically in the coming years. The AHCA’s 2025 policy priorities aim to lay the groundwork for a system capable of meeting this growing demand with quality, accessibility, and sustainability.
