Home care providers struggling with staffing issues, take heart. You are not the only ones wracking your brains trying to find willing employees. We all learned this week that one of your bosses, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is looking for a few good, ahem, regulators, too.

Yes, CMS, that massive agency that often may seem like the object of your frustration and ire, also is short of workers. Jon Blum, principal deputy administrator and COO, notified listeners that the agency is hiring during a stakeholder call with consumers on Tuesday.

In 2022, CMS hired permanently 500 positions. Right now, the agency has job openings for more than 700 employees throughout the agency — roughly 10% of the total CMS workforce, he said.

Blum even made a pitch to listeners.

“So as we continue to build programs, continue to contract better, to continue to deliver great results, we are also going to be hiring,” he said. “So those folks on the phone that are thinking about federal service, hopefully thinking about CMS service, check out CMS job postings. We are building the CMS workforce for the future. And hope that you think about joining us during 2023.”

Hmm … Just for the heck of it, let’s imagine for a minute wha one of those  job postings may look like:

“Wanted: People who desire to contribute to important public policy in healthcare. Duties: Develop regulations that have real-world consequences for healthcare providers. Warning: Aforementioned regulations (such as the one issued in October to home health providers) may cause providers to experience heart palpitations, high blood pressure and loss of sleep. Additional notes: Bleeding hearts need not apply.”

All kidding aside, healthcare needs the oversight of an organization like CMS. Like other major regulatory bodies, it is the target of people’s blame and criticism precisely because it does such critical work. 

But the fact that it is hiring, and has so many needs itself, means that it is not immune to economic pressures and trends. 

And that shows that it, too, is a business — with its own strengths and weaknesses — just like yours.

Liza Berger is editor of McKnight’s Home Care. Email her at [email protected].