Months before the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed federal staffing minimums for nursing homes, the American Health Care Association said it would sue over the rule should it offer providers little hope of compliance.

But when that rule was finalized in May — requiring nursing homes to have RNs on site 24 hours a day and increasing hourly direct care requirements from an earlier proposal — finding providers to carry the legal torch wasn’t necessarily a given.

Many providers might shy away from the possible scrutiny lawsuit involvement would bring, the chance to be pilloried in the mainstream media and have their motives questioned by families. But Derek Prince, CEO and Managing Partner of HMG Healthcare, knew he wanted his company play a major role in the case many now see as a last line of defense for the sector.

When AHCA leaders approached him seeking a Texas provider to share their concerns, Prince told them ‘Hell yes!”

“We instill in all of our folks, ‘Take care of people and we can always defend if you're doing what's right and trying to make stuff better and you're trying to take care of our population,’ ” Prince said. “So in this particular instance, we believe that the lawsuit is what's right.”

The CMS rule is too rigid for the many different kinds of nursing homes in the country and the different patient types they serve, Prince argues.

“It was a fairly easy decision to go, ‘If it’s not us, who,?’ and this is the time to step up. We always tell all of our team members, ‘You've got to get out there and execute, and you've got to be effective.’ And we just thought, ‘We have to walk the walk.’”

In this episode hosted by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Senior Editor Kimberly Marselas, Prince explains his reasoning on the lawsuit, why his company puts quality achievement ahead of staffing stars and what he sees as the best outcome for his patients and the sector.