Good news first: CMS doubled its nursing home staffing campaign to $200 million. Tuition reimbursement up to $40,000. A $10,000 stipend for nurses who commit three years to a nursing home. All 50 governors called Oz personally to chip in. Directionally correct. Genuinely better than nothing.
Now the questions. The program was first announced in 2023. It has been delayed multiple times. They're still in the phase of finding someone to find someone to give the money to. July 2026 at the earliest. Maybe.
The funding partly comes from civil monetary penalties , fines collected from nursing homes cited for care lapses, including understaffing. States were sitting on $485 million of these funds at the end of 2025.
The government's plan is to take money collected from nursing homes being punished for not having enough nurses, hold it for a few years, and then use it to train nurses for nursing homes that don't have enough nurses. This is the policy equivalent of fining someone for being hungry and then using the fine money to open a restaurant they'll be allowed to eat at in eighteen months pending application review.