After years of putting up with the Biden Administration's lack of care for seniors, the industry is filing a new lawsuit over new efforts to impose staffing requirements at nursing homes. The rule, which was brought about in April, would require mandatory minimum staffing at nursing homes, which includes hiring hundreds more nurses, caregivers, and other people who keep the homes functioning.
Their suit centers around Congress never giving the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the authority to impose the mandate the rules.
Adam Lamperts, the CEO of Cambridge Caregivers, says this will put a lot of strain on an already spread thin industry. It is also akin to the pandemic-era rules around it, but too much has changed since then.
"What happened was incredible wage inflation, because we have no pool of people to fill these positions," he says.
The suit argues the requirements as well will force facilities to close or downsize, which could displace thousands of residents, and ultimately jack up costs for residency.
The other problem is the people being hired for the positions in general now are immigrants.
"They are the people doing these jobs, and we do not have enough visas for them to fill these roles...and we will pay for it, because our costs will be higher...I can look out several years and tell you it will get even worse than it is today," he says.
Under the requirements, any nursing home that received federal funding will need to have a registered nurse on staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week, providing at least 3 hours of care per resident per day.
Costs have already hiked up over 30 percent for facilities since the pandemic shattered the economy. This move will add even more on top of that.
"When they do put in more staff, those costs will go up probably 30 percent more...so you will see more burden," he says.
Another problem he adds is the aging of baby boomers. He says as they get older, the homes will get more crowded, leading to more costs.
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