DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, along with 19 other states, sued the Biden-Harris administration Wednesday over its new mandate concerning the patient to staff ratio in nursing homes.
The suit, co-led by Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina also includes Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
The states say the mandate "sidesteps Congress and exceeds the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ authority."
According to the Iowa AG's office, the mandate requires a registered nurse be on staff 24 hours a day at nursing homes while also setting a new patient-to-nurse staffing ratio that is unrealistic and causes 94% of nursing homes to be out of compliance.
With nationwide staff shortages already present in the industry, this mandate would further jeopardize care for the elderly, Bird says.
"Our seniors spend a lifetime investing in our communities," Bird. "Now, we need to invest in them by ensuring they have access to the care they need. I am suing to stop the Biden-Harris attack on senior care that will force nursing homes out of business, increase costs for families, and remove access to senior care altogether."
The Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief filed by Bird and the 19 other states says that the nursing home industry faces many challenges already, and that putting a "heavy-handed" mandate in place while the industry fills such a vital role in society is a mistake.
Many homes and facilities would have to be closed due to what is called the “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting” or "Final Rule," court documents state.
The lawsuit continues, stating, "This Final Rule represents not only another attempt from the Biden-Harris administration to impose its policy preferences on the rest of the country but is also monumentally costly and nearly impossible to comply with."
The lawsuit cites an outside study that found over 100,000 new full-time employees would need to be hired to accommodate the mandate, costing nursing homes $6.8 billion a year nationwide and one-fourth of nursing home residents to be at risk of losing needed care.
Along with the increase in cost, it also says 79% of long-term facilities would need to add staff, including nearly 15,906 additional RNs to meet the 24/7 requirement.