Nursing homes, intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled, and co-located inpatient rehab facilities would be required to let each resident name an "essential caregiver" — a family member, friend, or advocate — who has the right to visit every day, at any time, even during emergencies when regular visitors are locked out. The bill is a direct response to what happened during COVID-19, when HHS used emergency waiver authority under Section 1135 to allow facilities to ban all visitors for months and residents deteriorated rapidly: pressure ulcers rose 31%, significant weight loss jumped 49%, and antipsychotic prescriptions spiked nearly 78%. To close that loophole, the bill explicitly states that essential caregiver access applies even when Section 1135 emergency waivers are in effect. Facilities could restrict caregiver access for a maximum of 7 days at the start of an emergency (up to 14 with state approval), but must always allow access for residents in end-of-life care or in decline. Caregivers who follow the facility's safety rules cannot be turned away, and if they are, there is a formal appeals process with penalties of up to ,000 for facilities that violate the rules.
Congressional Summary
Essential Caregivers Act of 2025 This bill prohibits certain health care facilities from limiting the access of essential caregivers to residents of those facilities, including during designated emergency periods. Specifically, the bill generally prohibits Medicare skilled nursing facilities, Medicaid nursing facilities, Medicaid intermediate care facilities, and associated inpatient rehabilitation facilities from restricting the access of essential caregivers to residents of the facilities, including during emergency periods in which visitation rights are otherwise restricted. During emergency periods, facilities may restrict access for an initial period of up to seven days and for one additional maximum seven-day period (if the additional period is approved by the state health department). Facilities may restrict access for a total of 7 days (or 14 days with the approval of the state health department) during an emergency period.Essential caregivers must agree to comply with any safety protocols set by the facility, which may be no more stringent for caregivers compared to those for staff. Caregivers who fail to comply with these requirements may be denied access, subject to an appeals process.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-12-16
- Date Added
- 2026-03-30