Seema Verma grants Tobin a face-to-face meeting at CMS headquarters to discuss staffing and other issues in long-term care.

Tobin has been awarded an audience with the Administrator of CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) Seema Verma, who reports directly to President Trump. This meeting was granted by Verma’s office due to a letter discussing staffing issues plaguing nursing departments in the long-term care industry written by Tobin Founder, Peg Tobin.

“As someone deeply entrenched in the long-term care industry, I find myself consistently coaching and encouraging executive level nurses on how to keep quality nurses in their facilities. Staffing has become more challenging because long-term care organizations are slow to change when it comes to thinking outside of the box to help remedy staffing issues,” Peg said.

For more than three decades, countless people have enjoyed the warmth, humor, and transformational power of Peg’s leadership and development training. An author and international motivational speaker, Peg has consistently empowered executive level employees in long-term care, thus making her an industry authority. This track record of success, along with her genuine concern for the industry, perked the interest of Verma’s office to set up a face-to-face meeting.

Peg adds, “If the current mindset of how to conduct staffing doesn’t change, we will continue to have high industry turnover and, eventually, lose people entirely in the industry.”

Seema Verma is a Trump appointee who oversees Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare. She has been a key component in pushing work requirements in Medicaid and spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to unilaterally unwind pieces of Obamacare. Her previous work as a consultant to conservative states focused on reshaping health care programs for the poor.

According to the most recent National Healthcare Retention and Registered Nurse (RN) Staffing report, the last recorded nurse turnover rate reached 16.8%, which is a two percent increase over the year prior. Tobin’s Nurse Leadership Project, which receives grant monies from CMS, is directly impacting the industry by reducing turnover and increasing resident and family satisfaction. Tobin is hoping this upcoming meeting with CMS will expand the programs reach into every state.