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Kris Hansen, CEO of the Western Home.

Imagine if you’d been charged $26 per roll during the great toilet paper shortage in the pandemic’s early days. Imagine the public outcry.

That didn’t happen because current price gouging laws prohibit companies from overcharging for necessities during public emergencies. Yet those laws don’t say a word about the price of services.

So health care staffing agencies are now price gouging Iowa’s nursing homes to the point of bankruptcy or closing.

That’s right: Government protects you from overpaying for toilet paper but so far hasn’t shown the political will to stop the highway robbery of Iowa’s most vulnerable seniors, who deserve consistent, committed caregivers.

The health care worker shortage was already dire before the pandemic. Since then, nursing home employment nationwide has declined a whopping 420,000 positions or 13.2%, far more than hospitals and clinics. Many, understandably, are burned out from the daily stress of protecting residents from a deadly virus.

Sadly, some went to work for agencies where unscrupulous owners have viewed this crisis as a money-making opportunity. They lure workers with higher wages, then charge that amount back to providers with a large mark-up added.

Wait, you may argue. Don’t nurses, aides and support staff deserve more pay?

Absolutely. We used one-time pandemic funds from the federal government to provide hourly hazard pay, meals for direct caregivers, attendance bonuses, vaccination bonuses, and social distancing pay to reward the sacrifices made off-hours to protect residents.

Yet when we recently raised direct care wages another $2/hour, our third hourly increase in the past 16 months, one agency promptly advertised a $10/hour hike — which they’ll pass right back to us.

That’s on top of the $4.9 million in agency fees we paid in 2021 for about 25% of our workforce.

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I’ve got more choice words than price gouging to define this game agencies are playing. If you’re still unmoved, consider the unlevel playing field:

Agencies, years ago, used to provide a helpful service of filling occasional holes or leaves of absence. Now those long-time agencies have to compete with greedy operators who only have dollar signs as motivation.

Then there’s this irony: Agency employees tell us they love assignments in our communities. Why wouldn’t they? Our long-time employees have worked hard to build a strong workplace culture. We’ve invested in construction and innovative models of care to create the optimal environment for working and living.

By choosing to work for an agency, those who admire and appreciate what we’ve built are helping tear it down.

Lawmakers can’t wait any longer to act.

During my 30 years with Western Home Communities, I’ve worked with elected and appointed officials from D.C. to Des Moines, advocating on behalf of fully funding senior services.

We’ve made some headway, but Medicaid reimbursements still don’t fully cover the cost of care. We’ve been cost-shifting for decades to our private-pay residents, causing them to run out of money sooner and go onto Medicaid — a vicious cycle.

Now we’re left with one choice if we want to stay solvent. Many providers, ourselves included, have limited the number of new nursing home admissions; some have closed and more will surely follow if this unfair labor practice isn’t stopped.

Iowa’s seniors soon won’t be able to find or afford the care they need, and what they do get won’t be the quality they deserve.

A sculpture of an owl sits in a 24-foot-tall metal oak tree, two sculptures Tanner King created for the Grant Park Trail trailhead in Auburn, Iowa.

A motorcycle that welder Tanner King and his grandfather Martin Erickson built together is displayed at Martin's Welding in Auburn, Iowa. King learned to weld from his grandfather and eventually took over the shop, where, in addition to commercial welding, King creates metal sculptures.

Welder Tanner King sits near a pair of metal oak trees at the Grant Park Trail trailhead in Auburn. In addition to more traditional welding jobs, King and his crew at Martin's Welding in Auburn create metal sculptures that can be seen throughout Sac County and beyond.

A CNC machine cuts out metal "feathers" for a sculpture at Martin's Welding in Auburn, Iowa. Owner Tanner King has grown an ornamental welding business in addition to his traditional welding work in the shop once owned by his grandfather, Martin Erickson, who taught King how to weld.

Welder Tanner King looks over a monitor as a CNC machine cuts out metal "feathers" for a sculpture at his shop, Martin's Welding in Auburn, Iowa. In addition to traditional welding jobs, King and his crew create metal sculptures.

A metal butterfly and other sculptures line East Main Street leading into Sac City. All were built by Tanner King.

Welder Tanner King stands with a sculpture of a crane that is in the process of being built at his shop in Auburn.

Kris W. Hansen, CPA, is chief executive officer of Western Home Services, a network of long-term care providers in Cedar Falls, Grundy Center, Jesup, Reinbeck, Madrid, Huxley and Nevada. He is a past recipient of the national LeadingAge Outstanding Advocacy Award.

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Kris Hansen, CEO of the Western Home.

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