Press Release: Attorney General Labrador Joins 20-State Coalition to Stop Medicare Nursing Home Rule Change

The following press release was sent out by Attorney General Raul Labrador. Press releases do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

[BOISE] – Attorney General Raúl Labrador joined a 20-state coalition 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. The suit is led by the attorneys general from Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina.

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 burdensome new reporting requirements for states. The coalition of attorneys general argue that the new rule exceeds CMS’s authority and sidesteps Congress.

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“Idaho has a growing population of senior citizens,” said Attorney General Labrador. “These unconstitutional and burdensome regulations from CMS will harm the very facilities we rely on to provide care for our aging family members, as well as harming the patients themselves. These short-sighted rules will put nursing homes out of business when Idaho needs them the most.”

“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.”

Attorney General Labrador and attorneys general from Kansas, Iowa, and South Carolina, are joined in the coalition by attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

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