An administrative rule to force minimum staffing levels on long-term care facilities has faced heavy resistance since the final version was announced in April 2024. Industry groups American Health Care Association and LeadingAge sued to block the action. Twenty Republican-led states similarly filed suit.

However, the incoming administration may give them faster satisfaction, according to The New York Times. Experts, officials, and researchers say it’s likely that under President-elect Donald Trump, the rule is likely to be rescinded. During his first administration, he took actions like reducing fines for entities that were cited for poor care.

When more than 172,000 skilled nursing residents died during the Covid-19 pandemic, public and governmental reactions insisted that something needed to be done. Back in April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service issued a final rule that would force long-term care facilities to provide higher staffing levels of registered nurses (RNs) and nurse aids (NAs). That included having registered nurses on-site 24 hours a day. The metric would have been 0.55 RN hours per resident day (HPRD) and 2.45 NA HPRD.