DHCFA Delegation Confers With Sen. Blunt Rochester, Rep. McBride in DC

June 10, 2026 | Uncategorized

DHCFA Executive Director Cheryl Heiks, Board VPs Mickey Carroll and David Parkinson, and Director at Large Leslie Johnson represented Delaware’s LTC facilities at the annual AHCA NCAL Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC on June 8 and 9. Together with AHCA’s Dan Ciolek, they met with Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester and US Representative Sarah McBride to discuss the industry’s successes and the challenges it is facing. The DHCFA team also met with Sen. Chris Coons’s team; the senator was unable to step away from committee hearings he is a member of.

The delegation attended the conference day to get an update on AHCA NCAL advocacy efforts on the national level. As part of the event, attendees heard from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Representative Frank Mrvan (IN-01), Representative Greg Murphy (NC-03), and Punchbowl News
Co-Founders Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer.

The Medicare Advantage Improvement Act of 2026 (S. 4384/H.R. 8375), which represents a significant step towards ensuring that Medicare Advantage delivers on its promise to America’s seniors by addressing issues such as prior authorizations, delayed payments, and clawbacks.
The Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act (S. 4641/H.R. 3954), which ensures that time spent under “observation status” in a hospital counts toward satisfying the three-day inpatient hospital requirement for coverage of skilled nursing care services under Medicare.
The Ensuring Seniors’ Access to Quality Care Act (S.4467/H.R. 7096), which expands the training of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) by allowing nursing facilities to resume their in-house CNA training programs that were suspended once quality standards are met.