As many providers will attest, recruitment and retention are a huge issue. Now, bring on the proposed CMS staffing mandate and nursing home challenges! The challenge of meeting these proposed requirements in rural areas of the country may be insurmountable Rural nursing homes’ livelihood may depend on non-existent staff – McKnight’s Long-Term Care News (mcknights.com).

A suit was filed in the Amarillo division of the US District Court of the Northern District of Texas by the American Health Care Association in May 2024. In August, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined the battle Nursing Home Staffing Rule Complaint.pdf (texasattorneygeneral.gov).

Now more than 20 states are challenging the federal staffing mandate ‘Existential Threat’: 21 States Sue CMS Over Nursing Home Staffing Mandate – Skilled Nursing News. The mandate sidesteps Congress and exceeds the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) authority, according to the lawsuit, while also posing an “existential threat” to the industry. Many facilities, still grappling with staffing issues, claim they’ll have no choice but to go out of business if the mandate goes through.

The Department of Health and Human Services has filed more than 75,000 pages of rule-making records with a federal court, beginning its formal defense of its controversial CMS staffing mandate and nursing home challenges CMS submits 75,000 pages to federal court to justify nursing home staffing mandate (mcknights.com).

Not to be left out, AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for more than 100 million Americans over age 50, published a Supreme Court preview Supreme-Court-Preview-9-16-2024-FINAL.pdf (aarp.org). This publication outlines the court’s fall term and includes cases on disability and civil rights that could significantly affect operations and census at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Stay well and stay informed!