Update on Federal Government Shutdown and Impacts on Aging Services
(Oct. 7, 2025) Last week, LeadingAge NY reported that the federal government was on the brink of a shutdown, as Congress had not reached an agreement on a continuing resolution (CR) to temporarily fund the government and maintain typical operations. Since then, the government has officially shut down, and the disruption affects the operations of numerous federal agencies, as well as congressional activity.
LeadingAge National and LeadingAge NY are closely monitoring the shutdown and federal funding actions relevant to long-term care (LTC), aging services, and older adults. For example, a review of impacts on home health and hospice is available here, a new LeadingAge National shutdown resource for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted Multifamily Housing providers is here, and an update on Medicare and Medicare Advantage impacts is here.
In addition, on Oct. 1st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memo, QSO-26-01-ALL, which provides details on state survey and certification activity contingency plans related to the lapse in appropriations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026. As noted in the FY 2026 CMS Lapse Plan, survey and certification activities will be limited during the shutdown.
The high-level takeaways on federally funded surveys are as follows:
- Nursing Homes and Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs):
- Routine recertification surveys will be paused.
- Federally funded survey activities will be limited to investigations of complaints that are triaged at levels of immediate jeopardy (IJ) or alleging actual harm.
- Enforcement activities related to complaint investigations of allegations of IJ or harm will continue.
- Revisits, either desk revisits or on-site revisits, will be conducted only in situations where a revisit is required to prevent termination of Medicare participation.
- Informal Dispute Resolutions (IDRs/IIDRs) related to these surveys will also continue only in circumstances where an immediate adverse action would be taken during the period of the shutdown.
- Statements of Deficiencies (SODs) and Plans of Correction (POCs) will not be processed during the shutdown, but timestamps will still be used to determine timeliness of providers' responses.
- Please note that state-funded survey activities may continue. LeadingAge NY has asked the Department of Health (DOH) what activities will continue, but has not yet received a response.
- Hospice:
- Surveys will continue. These are considered mandatory and are not impacted by the shutdown.
An additional update on COVID-19 vaccines:
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not adopt COVID-19 vaccine recommendations prior to the shutdown, nursing homes should continue efforts to comply with requirements for educating and offering COVID-19 vaccines and for reporting COVID-19 vaccination status of health care personnel through the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).
Though the definition of “up to date” has not been determined for Quarter 4 reporting (which began Sept. 29th), LeadingAge National has been advised that providers should continue to report according to the Quarter 3 definition until further notice. LeadingAge National will share additional updates from CMS and the CDC as they become available.
LeadingAge National’s article on CMS’s nursing home contingency plan details is available here. We will continue to keep members apprised of all LTC-related impacts of the shutdown.
Contact: Karen Lipson, klipson@leadingageny.org, or Sarah Daly, sdaly@leadingageny.org