Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration, challenging a new federal rule that he argues could force nursing homes across the state to shut down.
The ruling, issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), mandates significant changes to nursing home staffing requirements that Paxton claims are impractical and detrimental to senior care facilities in certain communities in Texas.
The lawsuit, filed earlier this week, contends that the CMS rule imposes an immediate and unrealistic burden on Texas nursing homes.
The new regulations would require Texas institutions to hire over 10,000 additional staff members with specific qualifications. Paxton argues that the current labor market in Texas lacks enough qualified personnel to meet these demands, particularly in rural areas where the shortage of employees is most challenging.
“This power grab by Biden’s health bureaucrats could put much-needed care facilities out of business in some of the most underserved areas of our state,” Paxton said in a press release.
According to the lawsuit, the CMS regulation violates the Major Questions Doctrine, which restricts government agencies from enacting significant regulatory changes without Congressional approval. Paxton asserts that Congress has consistently rejected proposals to alter nursing home staffing requirements, making the CMS rule an overstep of executive authority.
Additionally, Paxton’s lawsuit argues that the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which sets out specific rules for giving public notice of proposed rulemaking.
Paxton is seeking a court order to block the rule’s implementation and prevent the Biden Administration from enforcing it.
Supporters of the rule argue that ensuring adequate staffing levels is necessary to improve the quality of care in nursing homes. Lori Smetank, the executive director of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, told NPR that the rule is a good first step because many nursing homes are so understaffed that the residents suffer.
“Residents are not getting the care and services that they need, and that’s why they don’t want to go to nursing homes,” Smetank said.
Still, she believes the new rules do not go far enough.
“This new rule sets a floor or a baseline below which you cannot go, yet that is not to say that you shouldn’t be higher,” she explained, per NPR.
However, critics, including Paxton, assert that the new requirements are impractical and fail to account for the existing workforce challenges.
“We are taking the federal government to court over this rule that could worsen rural care shortages by shutting down facilities due to new hiring quotas that are impossible to fill,” Paxton said in the news release.
As The Dallas Express reported in 2022, North Texas nursing homes have grappled with severe staffing shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
George Linial, CEO and president of the nonprofit Leading Age of Texas, told NBC 5 DFW that the pandemic led to a 12% departure rate among long-term care workers in the state.
“There have been about 20 nursing homes that have closed in the last year, and several more are sort of on the brink just because they can’t afford the staff pay increases,” Linial said at the time.