A federal judge in Iowa has blocked a rule that would have forced nursing homes to have a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day.
“There just simply are not nearly enough registered nurses in the state of Iowa or across the country to meet that kind of requirement,” said Brent Willett, president & CEO of the Iowa Health Care Association.
The rule, advanced during the Biden Administration, also would have required that each nursing home resident get over 3.5 hours of direct care from certified nursing assistants each day. Willett says 90-95% of Iowa nursing homes would not have met either of those staffing mandates. “We applaud the judge’s ruling here,” Willett said. “This has been a cloud that’s hung over providers and families and long term care for several years. We’re certainly pleased that the court saw the flaw and the overreach that this rule represented.”
Under current federal law, nursing homes must have a registered nurse on duty for eight straight hours. “That was actually one of the components of the legal challenge because congress has weighed in on registered nurse hours,” Willett told Radio Iowa. “This rule sought to dip into congressional authority and expand that to 24 hours.”
Iowa and 19 states sued to block the new round-the-clock standard for RNs, as well as the mandated daily hours of direct care for nursing home residents. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who led the lawsuit alongside attorneys general from Kansas and South Carolina, said the regulations would have forced many nursing homes to close and the ruling protects access to long term care, particularly in rural Iowa.