Texas judge strikes down Biden's nursing home staffing mandate

In May 2024, a mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under the Biden administration aimed to enforce stricter staffing requirements at long-term care facilities participating in Medicaid or Medicare. This policy necessitated that nursing homes provide 24-hour licensed nursing services, a change implemented in response to the significant vulnerabilities exposed in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many argued that the policy was essential for ensuring quality care, while nursing home-affiliated organizations viewed it as excessively burdensome. In June 2024, several of these organizations filed a lawsuit claiming that the new standards fell outside of the statutory authority of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and contradicted Congress's existing staffing legislation. They argued that Congress had consistently opted for flexibility in determining staffing adequacy based on individual facility needs. On April 6, 2025, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that the Biden administration's policy was inconsistent with established laws and emphasized the importance of adhering to legislative standards. The decision was celebrated by the American Health Care Association, which argued that the ruling protected access to care for seniors and maintained the rule of law.