Personal Injury Law

Federal Report Finds Nursing Home Abuse Still Prevalent

According to a recent study by Federal Health officials, only minimal penalties are assessed to organizations that have been repeatedly cited for nursing home abuse of their patients. Congress has established strict standards for nursing homes as far back as 1987, and both Presidents Clinton and Bush, along with the nursing home industry have announced many initiatives to improve nursing home care.

However, The New York Times reports that Congressional Investigators, an investigative arm of Congress, has commented that ?Some of these homes repeatedly harmed residents over a six-year period and yet remain in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.? Further, the report illuminated the fact that because of the ?slap on the wrist? penalty mentality, some nursing homes cycle ?in and out of compliance? with federal standards and such nursing homes present a continued threat to the health and safety of their patients.

The report went on to indicate that the accountability office under the Bush administration rarely uses its authority to deny payment to homes with a history of compliance problems. Fines are typically far less than the maximum $10,000 a day according to the report. Apparently, the Bush administration prefers to impose lighter fines fearing that imposing the $10,000 maximum penalty may force some nursing homes into bankruptcy. Instead, those facilities guilty of nursing home neglect are given a grace period.

Full post as published by New York Injury Talk Blog on June 05, 2008 (boomark / email).