North Dakota joins lawsuit over 24-hour nursing home staffing rule

FARGO — North Dakota has joined a group of 20 states suing to stop a Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services rule that would require 24-hour staffing at nursing homes.

According to a Wednesday, Oct. 9, release from the office of North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley, nursing homes are required by Congress to provide eight hours of continuous staffing per day.

The new rule raises that to 24-hour staffing and requires a higher ratio of nursing staff to residents “that 97% of nursing homes would be out of compliance with,” the release said.

“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.

Wrigley said the new rule would particularly affect care facilities in rural areas.

“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,” he said.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum gave his support to Wrigley in joining the lawsuit.

“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,” Burgum said in the release.

The lawsuit is led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. They are joined 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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