ND joins lawsuit to stop Biden regulations from driving ‘nursing homes out of business’

North Dakota has partnered with 19 states to put the brakes on new Biden administration regulations that threaten the financial viability of nursing homes that provide vital care to thousands of residents. The federal lawsuit aims to stop controversial Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) rules that would burden facilities for the elderly with red tape and expensive staffing requirements that will undermine an industry already facing enormous challenges.

This Final Rule poses an existential threat to the nursing home industry as many nursing homes that are already struggling will have no choice but to go out of business. And the main victims will be the patients who will have nowhere else to go.

…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 high stakes for families who depend on nursing homes to care for their loved ones were underscored in a news release from the office of North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley announcing the legal challenge.

“Twenty states have banded together to push back and hopefully defeat the Biden-Harris Administration’s poorly planned overreach that will weaken care and ultimately restrict patient access when nursing care facilities are forced to close, especially in rural areas,” Wrigley said.

The lawsuit contends the Biden administration regulations circumvent the rightful role of Congress and go well beyond the agency’s authority. The states claim compliance would total some $6.8 billion, driving the cost of care even higher for 285,000 residents at risk.

Currently, nursing homes are required by Congress to provide 8 hours of continuous staffing per day. The new rule would increase the continuous staffing rule to 24 hours per day. It also requires a nursing staff ratio that 97% of nursing homes would be out of compliance with. Additionally, it requires of states burdensome new reporting requirements.

Gov. Doug Burgum backs the lawsuit, predicting the federal regulations would also have an adverse effect on other areas of the state’s health care system.

“This new CMS rule will have a devastating impact on access to nursing homes and have unintended consequences to hospitals by impairing their ability to discharge patients into rehab and long-term care facilities,” Burgum said. “North Dakota continues to work on providing quality care to individuals in nursing homes across our state. Federal rules like this that fail to acknowledge the unique needs of North Dakota and other rural states will only worsen the workforce gaps in a nursing profession that is already experiencing a massive shortage following the pandemic.”

The bottom line according to the states’ lawsuit? “There is no universe in which this Final Rule is lawful.”