A lawsuit by 31 nursing homes challenging a federal rule on the makeup of survey teams that investigates complaints was dismissed in federal court this week.
The nursing facilities must first “administratively exhaust” claims that arise under the Medicare Act before they can sue the agency over the rule, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Tuesday.
The facilities challenged a Medicare rule that no longer requires survey teams investigating complaints to include a registered nurse. Regulations previously required the survey teams to be made up of healthcare professionals from different disciplines and to include an RN, Bloomberg Law reported.
The facilities were seeking a pre-enforcement review under the Administrative Procedure Act and argued the rule was “arbitrary, “capricious” and contradicted previous regulations, court documents stated.
District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, however, sided with the federal government, which argued that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter because the facilities failed to challenge the rule through the Department of Health and Human Services’ administrative review process.
Court documents showed that the facilities were supported by the American Health Care Association, along with Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky and New York state organizations, in “a friend-of-the-court brief” in the case. A call from McKnight’s seeking comment from the providers’ representation was not returned by production deadline.
