NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A Hutchinson long-term care facility has agreed to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the federal government.
"CMS, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, imposed a staffing mandate via regulation on the nursing home industry, and it takes effect, I think, in 2026 is when it first starts," said Mark Mains, CEO of Wesley Towers in Hutchinson. "Anyway, the mandate is simply something we can't, as an industry or as individual facilities, we can't meet that."
This is increasing the staffing ratios that long-term care facilities currently work under.
"It involves a certain number of, we use the term hours per resident day, so anyway, it involves certain minimum ratios for those things," Mains said. "One of the hardest parts to meet is going to be the 24-7 requirement for an RN, and if we could find that many RNs, it'd be fabulous, but they're just not out there."
According to a release from LeadingAge Kansas, if fully implemented, the new regulation would mean that nursing homes across the U.S. will need an additional 27,000 full-time registered nurses (RNs) and 78,000 full-time nurse aides costing over $7 billion.
"We don't want to close any nursing home in the state or the country. If Pretty Prairie closes, the people that have loved ones there that live around Pretty Prairie now have to drive to Hutchinson or to Wichita or wherever the surviving facilities are, and that's just not fair," Mains said. "A lot of these facilities in rural settings are the primary employer in their county, so now not only do you have to drive maybe 40 miles to see your loved one, you may have to drive 40 miles to get a job, and besides all that, there just aren't the RNs available."
Wesley Towers and the Dooley Center in Atchison, KS are individual homes that have agreed to be plaintiffs in the suit.