Leaders from Good Samaritan and administrators from its locations spent a few days advocating for solutions that advance quality care and strengthen the long-term care workforce.
They met with elected officials at the 2025 American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) Congressional Briefing on Capitol Hill.
The invite-only congressional briefing provided members the opportunity to connect with elected officials, gain insight into the latest legislative and policy developments, and collaborate with other industry leaders.
Attendees included Good Samaritan President and CEO Nate Schema, Chief Operating Officer Aimee Middleton, Algona, Iowa, administrator Joe Bartolo, Auburn, Nebraska, senior lead administrative assistant Maria Buitrago-Hudson, and Jalene Carpenter, president and CEO of the Nebraska Health Care Association.
“They’re very willing to listen,” Bartolo said. “But I think it’s very important for them to understand the people who live what we do day in and day out and the people we serve, plus the importance of these dollars to our communities, our residents, our staff and families.”
Schema says, at the end of the day, it comes back to the residents.
Our message this week is how do we continue to advance quality? How do we look at regulations that might be getting in the way of providing that outstanding care?”
Leaders advocated for policies like the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, which would help build the nursing workforce by tapping into the pipeline of internationally trained nurses.
“We know that workforce pipeline is critical to our ability to provide access to care in rural communities,” Schema added.
Strength in personal stories
As the head of the Nebraska Health Care Association, the state chapter of AHCA/NCAL, Carpenter and her team work with organizations like Good Samaritan on advocacy efforts at the state and national level.
“It’s a really great opportunity for two things,” Carpenter said. “One, a show of strength as our industry, right? Nothing is better than a whole group taking the hill by storm and being able to share our story.
“It also helps to give people the opportunity to share personal stories. You know, something that you can’t really do via email or try to do when you’re having other meetings on maybe policy issues. So, I think it’s twofold.”
The Nebraska Health Care Association gives a congressional briefing scholarship to front-line employees in long term care in Nebraska, which provided Buitrago-Hudson the opportunity to attend.
With a resident-first mindset for this group, this week was more personal.
“I am here to share and to advocate for families, residents and communities in Nebraska,” Buitrago-Hudson told Sanford Health News.
“I would like to our leaders to know that we really need for them to address all the obstacles and challenges that we have going on right now with wages and staffing and Medicaid reimbursement. We need our leaders to help us develop and maintain long-term care facilities in rural communities like our community.”
“If we don’t have the opportunity to share our story, no one is going to do that on our behalf,” Chief Operating Officer Aimee Middleton said. “So it’s important they see that the decisions and the investments that they make in our industry as well as technology and innovation in our workforce, impacts directly our communities all across the nation.”
Policy effects on whole health system
Good Samaritan, part of an integrated system with Sanford Health, offers some unique perspective on how policies and investments impact the entire health care ecosystem.
“How are those transitions of care flowing seamlessly? How do we prevent re-hospitalization?” Schema added. “What types of innovations can we do as a broader system and maybe not focused on one part of the ecosystem? So I think we bring a really unique perspective to help our legislators understand impacts.”
“If we pull this lever over here, it’s potentially going to have a pretty dramatic impact on the rest of that ecosystem. In our case, the post-acute space.”
Sanford Health News caught up with each of the attendees to recap their experience. Watch them here:
Learn more
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- How to become nationally recognized for quality care
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Posted In Corporate Services & Administration, Leadership in Health Care, News, People & Culture, Senior Services
