YourVoice.Now Summary
Civil LibertiesTransparency & AccountabilityCorporate BenefitsEven during an emergency lockdown, nursing home residents could keep one named caregiver visiting every day.
Civil Liberties
In an emergency, a home could not turn away the one caregiver a resident picks. The rules would start two years after the bill becomes law.
When an emergency starts, a home may shut caregivers out for up to 7 days. A state health agency can approve one more 7-day stretch, and that is the limit.
Homes must let the caregiver in for residents in end-of-life care, or in decline or distress. The Health Secretary would define who counts as declining.
A resident who cannot pick still gets a caregiver. Memory loss or a mental disability counts, and then the person acting for them picks.
Transparency & Accountability
If a home turns a caregiver away, it must hand over a written reason within 24 hours. That notice must also spell out how to appeal.
Appeals go to the state agency that inspects homes. It must rule within 48 hours, and the home must prove the caregiver broke the rules.
Corporate Benefits
A state agency that finds a violation orders immediate access and a fix-it plan within 7 days. A home that misses that deadline can be fined up to $5,000.
More about this bill
Anyone living in a nursing home could name one visitor who gets in every day, at any time. That right would hold even when an emergency order shuts out everyone else. The bill calls that person an essential caregiver — a spouse, child, friend, or advocate. Residents could change their pick whenever they want. If a resident cannot choose, the person acting for them could pick instead. The same rules would cover homes for people with intellectual disabilities, and rehab units on the same campus. The bill's findings point to the pandemic, when the number of residents with big weight loss rose 49 percent. Homes could still lock a caregiver out when an emergency starts, but only for 7 days. A state health agency could sign off on 7 more. Those 14 days are the cap for the whole emergency. Residents who are dying or getting worse keep their caregiver the whole time. Caregivers must follow the home's safety rules. Those rules can be no tougher than the ones staff follow. A home that turns a caregiver away must give a written reason within 24 hours, plus the steps to appeal. The state would start looking into the appeal within two business days. It would rule within 48 hours. A home that skips an ordered fix could be fined up to $5,000. The changes would start two years after the bill becomes law. The bill also says it hands no one new power to block visits.
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
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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