Consumer Law

If At First You Don?t Succeed...Keep Trying to Take Away Nursing Home Victim?s Rights

By Amanda

It must be that time of year again.  State legislatures are up and running, passing laws that (we hope) will make our states better places to live.  Of course I suppose that depends on what your definition of ?better? is.

And I suppose if you are a nursing home owner in Tennessee you?ve lent your support ($$$$) to legislation introduced again (they tried last year and failed) that would limit legal recourse for nursing home residents should they be harmed or killed.   This year's bill would place an arbitrary cap on damages that victims could collect, which Tennessee's AARP and consumer groups vehemently oppose.

"It's obscene," says Tom Peters of Tennessee Citizen Action, which opposes the bill. "These legislators are putting a campaign contribution over someone's life," referring to the millions of dollars the nursing home industry has spent over the last decade to lobby the state legislature.

But among other things, the civil justice system is supposed to compensate victims of grossly inadequate care or gross failures of care.  Caps would benefit nursing homes, but harm victims ? yet most of the press spins this issue as if it is the lawsuits that are preventing the nursing home industry from providing proper care for the elderly.  Last year, the New York Times wrote an investigative report on the nursing home industry and found that the corporations often shield themselves from litigation by setting up a network of dummy companies preventing victims from receiving compensation.

Personally, if I had to put a loved one in a nursing home I would want to be sure that the facility was spending most of its time and attention on the care of its residents ? not finding new ways to shield itself from accountability.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on March 12, 2009 (boomark / email).