Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has initiated legal action against the Biden Administration, aiming to halt a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule. This regulation could potentially lead to the closure of rural nursing homes, displacing elderly residents from necessary care.
According to Paxton, the new rule mandates immediate changes to nursing home staffing requirements. Texas institutions would need to hire over 10,000 personnel with highly specific qualifications—a demand that exceeds the current availability within the state's labor market and specific service areas. Rural facilities are particularly vulnerable due to a well-documented national shortage of qualified personnel in this sector, which disproportionately affects certain regions.
The lawsuit contends that the rule contravenes the Major Questions Doctrine. This doctrine restricts government agencies, managed by unelected officials, from enacting regulations on significant issues better suited for Congressional decision-making. Congress has consistently declined to modify nursing home staffing requirements. Additionally, Paxton argues that the CMS regulation is arbitrary and capricious, thus violating the Administrative Procedure Act. He has requested that the court invalidate the rule and prevent its enforcement by the Biden Administration.
“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,” said Attorney General Paxton. “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.”
To read the filing, click here.