(KNOX) – North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, with the full support of Gov. Doug Burgum, today joined a 20-state coalition, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, in a lawsuit seeking to stop a Biden-Harris administration Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) rule that would cost states hundreds of thousands of dollars and drive nursing homes out of business.
“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.
“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.”
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.
The coalition of attorneys general argues that the new rule exceeds CMS’s authority and sidesteps Congress.
“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 patients who have nowhere else to go,” the complaint reads. “…The final rule represents another attempt from the Biden-Harris administration to impose its policy preferences on the rest of the country but is monumentally costly and nearly impossible to comply with.”
In addition to the 20-state coalition, LeadingAge affiliates from 17 states also are joining the lawsuit. LeadingAge is an organization with numerous nursing home members.
Wrigley and attorneys general from Kansas, Iowa, and South Carolina, are joined in the coalition by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
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