Remind Me of the Requirements
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final ruling in late April, solidifying a nursing home staffing mandate.
The Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities ruling, finalized in April, requires all nursing homes that receive federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid maintain staffing ratios of 3.48 hours per resident per day of total staffing.
Facilities have three or five years to implement the staffing standards, depending on whether they are in a rural or urban area.
Funding was not included in the ruling, but a staffing campaign is expected to include more than $75 million to help states with recruitment.
What’s in the New Lawsuit?
The latest lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Cedar Rapids Division, makes many of the same arguments as previous lawsuits, alleging that the mandate is an “existential threat” to the nursing home industry:
- A study found that more than 100,000 full-time staff would need to be hired to meet the staffing requirements laid out in the mandate.
- The ruling is expected to cost roughly $6.8 billion annually.
- Nearly all “current skilled nursing facilities” would not comply with at least one of the requirements.
- One-fourth of nursing home residents will be “at risk of losing necessary care” if facilities can’t meet the mandate.
The Iowa-led suit also argues that the mandate is unlawful and puts a “monumental financial burden” on long-term care facilities.
LeadingAge South Carolina’s president and CEO Kassie South, said there’s “just a numbers problems.” The organization is among the plaintiffs in the most recent lawsuit.
“We don’t have enough people to be able to fill this mandate,” South told the (South Carolina) Post and Courier, “which will close — and already has shut down — services within our state.”
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