On August 14, 2025, the EOHHS-led Viability and Sustainability of Long-term Care Facilities Task Force, established as part of the commonwealth’s 2024 landmark LTC reform law, issued its final report in regard to recommendations about the viability and sustainability of long-term care facilities. Chaired by the EOHHS Secretary and 11 representatives, including Mass Senior Care President Tara Gregorio, the Task Force examined a series of LTC facility issues, including: adequacy of payment rates, access to capital, workforce challenges and access to services. With respect to nursing facility care, the Task Force report included the following recommendations to sustain the sector:
- Adequacy of Payment – "Ensuring funds are appropriated to support adequate rates is the most important issue for the legislature to focus on to ensure quality care and avoid further skilled nursing facility and rest home closures. A long-term care facility's ability to invest in quality resident care and staff is directly tied to adequate funding."
- Access to Capital – the Task Force highlighted that the Commonwealth has an aging long term care facility infrastructure. To ensure an adequate supply of beds, the Task Force recommended that the Commonwealth should implement policies to increase private and public access to capital funding for long term care facilities to support planning for ongoing maintenance and large capital investments. This could be through grant programs or through zero interest or low interest loans.
- Workforce Challenges – nursing facilities need to fill 5,000 direct care worker vacancies to meet the growing demand for care, and this may increase if there is further workforce loss. The Task Force recommended that the Commonwealth should invest in Medicaid rates for nursing facilities and DTA rates for rest homes to allow facilities to pay a more competitive wage for frontline staff, 90% of whom are women and more than 50% of whom are people of color. The Task Force further recommended that the Commonwealth invest in the LTC Workforce and Capital Fund established in the 2024 LTC Reform Law to fund nursing career ladder programs and to implement supervisory and leadership training programs.
- Access – the Task Force reviewed a series of factors related to supply and demand of nursing facility care. EOHHS estimated that there will be sufficient capacity until 2034 but recognized that there is a host of factors that could change over time and move this date in either a positive or negative direction. These factors include changes in the availability of licensed beds, the availability of clinical staffing workforce, potential growing need for behavioral care, and structural need for empty beds for patient flow/churn, isolation rooms, or single rooms for certain patients.