Several nursing homes and an industry group have sued the state of New Jersey over a 2020 law mandating minimum staffing levels, saying a worker shortage makes compliance impossible. (Getty Images)
Half a dozen nursing homes and an industry lobbying group have sued the state over staffing mandates, claiming worker shortages exacerbated by the pandemic make it impossible to comply, leaving the 2020 law setting staff minimums unconstitutional.
The Health Care Association of New Jersey, a long-term care industry group, says the $1,000 daily fines levied against nursing homes that fail to meet statutory staffing minimums ran afoul of constitutional protections on due process and against excessive fines.
“It is impossible for the Nursing Home industry to comply with the Staffing Law — there are not enough workers available in the system,” they said in a complaint filed last week in state Superior Court in Mercer County.
The law at question — approved early in the pandemic after COVID-19 raged through the state’s long-term care centers, leaving thousands dead — required such facilities to staff at least one certified nursing aide for every eight residents on the day shift, 10 on evening shifts, and 14 on night shifts.
In their lawsuit, the nursing homes said the staffing shortages forced long-term care centers to compete with each other for workers, including from staffing agencies, to maintain their workforces.
But they said even those measures would leave some facilities understaffed and facing fines.
“The result is a classic zero-sum game with guaranteed losers. If on a given day one Nursing Home is lucky enough to have sufficient staff show up for work, by necessity other Nursing Homes will fail to comply with the Staffing Law’s mandate,” they said in their filing.
It’s unclear how much long-term care centers have been fined over insufficient staffing. The suit charged some facilities had been assessed fines totaling more than $100,000.
The Department of Health, which is named as a defendant alongside Health Commissioner Kaitlan Baston, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit or the total fines assessed over subpar staffing.
A spokesperson for Gov. Phil Murphy declined to comment on the litigation, to which the department has yet to file a formal reply.
The nursing homes aren’t the only ones concerned about long-term care staffing.
In an April report, the New Jersey Task Force on Long-Term Care Quality and Safety warned the industry’s workforce was shrinking and would be unable to meet the state’s needs as its population ages.
They cited poor pay, a lack of advancement opportunities, training costs, and ageism as hurdles for the industry, adding New Jersey’s graying population would make the shortages more dire over time.
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