Kentucky is joining 19 other states in challenging a Biden administration rule that sets minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.
The nursing home industry has pushed back against the rule, saying it couldn’t afford to comply even if enough new staff could be found amid a widespread health care workforce shortage, Kentucky Health News previously reported.
Twenty state attorneys general, including Kentucky’s Russell Coleman, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, seeking to overturn and reverse the new regulations.
The Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Rule requires nursing homes that receive Medicare or Medicaid payments to provide 3.48 hours of direct nursing care per resident each day, including a defined number for registered nurses (0.55 per resident per day) and nurse aides (2.45 hours per resident per day).
About 211 Kentucky long-term care facilities do not meet staffing requirements, according to the lawsuit. To comply, they would need to hire 185 registered nurses and 1,336 nursing assistants, the lawsuit states.
The 66-page court document criticizes the rule as an “existential threat to the nursing home industry” that will put some out of business and cause “irreparable” harm.
“Senior citizens and other vulnerable members of society rely on nursing homes and similar facilities to meet their needs when family members cannot,” the lawsuit says. “Although the nursing home industry certainly has had its share of challenges, it fills a vital need in our communities that cannot be replaced. Instead of addressing the legitimate challenges nursing homes face, the defendants put forward a heavy-handed mandate.”
“And the main victims,” the lawsuit says, “will be the patients who will have nowhere else to go.”
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Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
