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Breaking News: LeadingAge Iowa Joins 21 States in Staffing Mandate Lawsuit 

The LeadingAge Iowa Board of Directors voted to join a lawsuit with not-for-profit and mission-minded providers to overturn the new CMS Staffing Mandate.  While LeadingAge Iowa shares CMS’s goal of ensuring all nursing home residents receive quality care, the mandate is an overreach by CMS that places an undue financial burden on states, providers, and Americans. The parallel lawsuit bolsters efforts in Texas and provides another way to oppose the mandate and protect access to long-term care. 

This lawsuit was initiated by the three Attorneys General from the states of Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina, and was filed October 8th in the Northern District of Iowa. Multiple other Attorneys General have joined the lawsuit including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. While the Attorneys General will focus on the undue burden the mandate will have on state budgets and taxpayers, LeadingAge Iowa, as co-plaintiffs, have the opportunity to express concerns on how the mandate may impact access to care for seniors in our state.  

To date, LeadingAge state affiliates in Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, New Jersey/Delaware, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Southeast (which includes Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana), Oklahoma, Ohio, and Virginia, Tennessee, and South Dakota, as well as two individual nonprofit providers from Kansas have agreed to join the suit.  

There are two primary purposes to our strategy in joining the lawsuit: 

  1. To push back on harmful mandates for LeadingAge Iowa members and nursing homes across the country. To reinforce standing and substantive arguments for the states’ suit and injunction, LeadingAge Iowa completed a “Declaration of Harm” that outlines specifics on how the mandate will harm our members if allowed to take effect.  

  1. To seek to vacate certain of the more onerous requirements in the rule. By joining, LeadingAge Iowa has asked the court to vacate and declare unlawful the (i) staffing requirement, (ii) enhanced facility assessment and (iii) HPRD requirements. This focused approach would provide relief from the most burdensome aspects of the rule. 

This additional lawsuit, on top of the lawsuit filed in Texas, provides members with another opportunity to make our case and potentially expand the discussion to address additional regulatory burden recently implemented by CMS. 

CMS has exceeded their authority and acted in an arbitrary and capacious manner with the mandate and other proposed CMS initiatives. LeadingAge national and states have advised CMS for decades that a one-size-fits-all policy model designed to address the poor performer does not work. Instead, it drives high-quality, mission-based providers out of this portion of the healthcare system.    

LeadingAge Iowa and its members remain committed to providing safe, quality care to older adults. It is imperative to work together to identify policies that truly improve the comprehensive care of older adults and while supporting our ability to serve.   

Because of the sensitivity that surrounds legal matters, please forward all media inquiries you may receive to [email protected].