Iowa’s leaders must stand up for nursing home residents

Twenty state attorneys general, including Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, filed a court challenge to nursing home staffing rule adopted by the Biden administration.

The attorneys general and the nursing home issue are fighting the rules, intended to require better care for residents, because they’ll cost the industry money. Bird has pitched a sky-is-falling scenario that responsible staffing, such as having a registered nurse at facilities 24 hours a day, will lead to a “mass shutdown of nursing homes.”

Seven organizations, including the National Association of Local Long-term Care Ombudsmen is seeking to intervene in the legal action to counter the arguments advanced by Bird and the industry. We’re support those groups, and the new staffing regulations.

The Capitol Dispatch’s Clark Kaufman dug into some of the comments on the proposed rules from front-line caregivers. The industry should be apologizing, not litigating.

Kaufman wrote of a dietitian who reported caregivers in a facility where she worked declared a periodic “med holiday,” throwing away all the medications for residents in a shift because they lacked the time to pass them out.

Others told how workers couldn’t provide toileting help, baths or food for residents. In other accounts, residents wore the same clothes all week because a facility didn’t have enough staff to change them.

As for mass shutdowns, a recent study found that some nursing home owners are hiding large profits by overpaying for services to other companies they own.

Iowa has had its own horror stories of residents walking away from facilities in freezing weather, resident abuse and a lack of basic services. Along with Bird, Gov. Kim Reynolds also opposes new staffing requirements.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 14% of Iowa’s 422 nursing homes were cited for insufficient staffing in 2023. The national average is 5.9% and just five states had a worse record for inspections.

We fully realize that the Trump administration will scrap these staffing rule, handing a victory to unscrupulous owners and the politicians who support them. A pile of campaign donations help seal the alliance.

But we want to recognize that many advocates in Iowa and elsewhere have stood up and demanded better care. They’ve exposed severe problems and shined a light on the consequences of substandard care.

We believe, in the long run, that these efforts will make a difference and lead to quality care some of our most vulnerable Iowans. The status quo is unacceptable.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com