CMS has republished a Notice of Funding Opportunity related to addressing nursing home staffing challenges.
The agency is again accepting applications to help fund financial incentives, such as loan repayment and stipends, to registered nurses and licensed practical nurses who work for three years in an eligible nursing home or state oversight agency.
The republished funding opportunity builds on a series of staffing-related investments and policy moves CMS has made over the past two years.
In April 2024, CMS committed to investing more than $75 million to increase nursing home staffing. In December 2024, the agency launched a Nursing Home Staffing Campaign, earmarking $20 million for eligible nursing homes to use toward student loan debt relief for registered nurses.
In September 2025, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, said the agency would invest more than $75 million in what he at the time called a “new campaign” to address the nursing home staffing shortage.
In December, three months after the “new campaign” was announced, CMS repealed a core provision of its 2024 minimum staffing rule for long-term care facilities, citing recent federal court rulings and concerns over implementation. The agency withdrew the requirement that long-term care facilities maintain a registered nurse on site 24/7.
