Nursing Home Justice
Cross-posted from Illinois Deserves the Truth
With all of the recent talk around nursing homes in recent months (us included here, here)- much of it to do with the acquisition of Manor Care by the Carlyle Group and the quality of care loss that usually follows this type of business deal - it's a great thing to see that the Illinois House is looking at a bill (HB 5213) to help protect nursing home victims and hold nursing homes accountable for their wrongful actions.
In a nut shell, HB 5213 would require Illinois nursing homes to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance. Bruce Kohen, President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, states that 20 percent of nursing homes go without any liability insurance at all. (Yikes, if I had to entrust the care of myself or a loved one to a nursing home, I would like to know if they carried liability insurance or not. I honestly assumed that they had to.) To add on to this shocking tidbit, as told in the NY Times article, many nursing homes add complex layers of corporate structure to insulate the money makers from being held accountable of wrongdoing. Because of this many victims have no way of getting redress from courts when they are injured.
Kudos to Representatives David E. Miller, Greg Harris and Mary E. Flowers for sponsoring this important legislation.
14 comments:
Most nursing home operators do a good job, but all need to have insurance, because of operators who hire people like this:
Nursing home aide accused of kissing disabled patient
EVERGREEN PARK - A nursing home assistant has been charged with misdemeanor battery after he was accused of kissing a disabled woman in his care, Evergreen Park police said Wednesday.
And then there's the mysterious deaths up in McHenry County:
Pace of Woodstock nursing home morphine deaths probe frustrates families
Nearly 10 months after investigators exhumed her mother's body, Vickie Lund says she is growing frustrated at the slow pace of an inquiry into whether morphine overdoses contributed to the deaths of six elderly nursing home residents.
In Peoria County there's this:
EAST PEORIA: Nursing home will close after all - but not until May 19
"...Last year the department cited the facility at 1910 Springfield Road with 23 state nursing home code violations. Some involved the April deaths of two elderly residents, one after a fall and another who choked to death on food.
Others, however, related to the facility’s mixture of older, or geriatric residents and others with histories of mental illness or criminal behavior without adequate security and safeguards required in such situations."
YDD--please at least disclose the fact you are being paid by the Il. Trial Lawyers. You are shameless.
Those yuckie trial lawyers trying to make a buck off elder abuse how dare they! Leave the old people in peace, nursing homes have a heart and will take real good care of them till the money runs out.
Nursing homes have seen their insurance costs go up 4000% in the last 10 years while Illinois ranks 49th in Medicaid rates paid to nursing homes. Since the Edgar administration Illinois has only budgeted 6 to 8 months of payments to nursing homes creating huge cash flow problems. If nursing homes are forced to have insurance they will have to use money that would have gone towards patient care, so in the long run the patient suffers but their family will be able to sur.
The law currently requires fire extinguisher salesman, locksmiths, lawn sprinkler companies, boilermakers, asbestos workers, petroleum equipment installers, home medical equipment salesmen, pharmaceutical salesmen, hearing device salesmen, burglar alarm salesmen, private detectives, and nursing agencies. Even the licensure of massage therapists references liability insurance.
The question here isn't should nursing homes be required to carry liability insurance, but why they should be excluded from that requirement.
BTW, Anon 5:38, stop being absurd. I guess the fact that I post on teacher tenure, Rod Blagojevich, Hillary Clinton, immigration reform, gay rights, reproductive rights, electronic medical records, and NIU, just to name a few, means I must work for the IEA, Republican Party, Barack Obama, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, Equality Illinois, National Abortion Rights Action League, Google and DePaul University too.
Or maybe I'm just a progressive Democrat who believes that people and corporations ought to be held accountable for their actions. Maybe I'm someone who's seen his own grandparents and great-grandparents in and out of nursing homes, and believes that as all of our own parents start to head that way, the last thing we should have to worry about is how our families will recover if the nursing home screws up.
Families already have enough anxiety about placing a loved one in nursing home care. The Wall Street Journal recently reported widespread doping of seniors across the country to make them easier to manage. When even the Bush administration admits that nursing homes are sedating our elderly with psychotropic drugs, not because the drugs are medically recommended, but because they want them to stay put, it time for state government to take notice and act.
YDD when you are paid by the Il Trial Lawyers to post their position, admit it. When one does things for money, it creates conflict and you my friend cannot be objective when you are being paid. What is the oldest profession known to man? Prostitution? YDD, answer this question, do you do work for the Il. Trial Lawyers?
Anon 4:05 --
No, I'm not being paid by the Illinois Trial Lawyers to post here, and in fact I'm not posting their position, I'm posting news stories from around Illinois.
People are free to interpret those stories however they like.
Apparently, you can't argue with the stories.
But, I guess if you can't handle the truth or refute it, you attack the messenger. In that case, don't blame me, blame the Bush Administration.
Here's what the Wall Street Journal wrote:
"Nearly 30% of the total nursing-home population is receiving antipsychotic drugs, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, known as CMS. In a practice known as "off label" use of prescription drugs, patients can get these powerful medicines whether they are psychotic or not. CMS says nearly 21% of nursing-home patients who don't have a psychosis diagnosis are on antipsychotic drugs."
That's not the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association is saying or what I'm saying, that's what the Bush Administration is saying.
For the record, its pretty clear that what they are doing is illegal. From 210 ILCS 45/2‑106.1:
(a) A resident shall not be given unnecessary drugs. An unnecessary drug is any drug used in an excessive dose, including in duplicative therapy; for excessive duration; without adequate monitoring; without adequate indications for its use; or in the presence of adverse consequences that indicate the drugs should be reduced or discontinued. The Department shall adopt, by rule, the standards for unnecessary drugs contained in interpretive guidelines issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for the purposes of administering Titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act.
(b) Psychotropic medication shall not be prescribed without the informed consent of the resident, the resident's guardian, or other authorized representative. "Psychotropic medication" means medication that is used for or listed as used for antipsychotic, antidepressant, antimanic, or antianxiety behavior modification or behavior management purposes in the latest editions of the AMA Drug Evaluations or the Physician's Desk Reference.
Hey YDD, I can search the Internet and cut and paste stuff too. Look familiar?
Lobbying Entity Search Information
Client(s)
Name
ILLINOIS TRIAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION
File Date
02/22/2008
Termination Date
N/A
Um, no.
What's your point?
Are you disagreeing with the Bush administration? Are you saying that nursing homes should be able to sedate their patients with anti-psychotic drugs to keep them under control?
Do me a favor....talk to your grandparents then get back to me.
BTW, if anyone wants to know just how safe your parents and grandparents are, consider this.
Dr. Luis D'Avis had his licensed suspended for five years after fondling four nursing home patients.
THEN, he was subsequently rehired and found in violation of his probation, unprofessional conduct, immoral conduct of a sexual nature, prescribed controlled substances for non-therapeutic purposes, controlled substance violations and failure to maintain records of patient care and treatment as required.
Hi everyone.
Please click on the link below or copy and paste to your browser to view a segment that aired on channel 7 news Chicago regarding my grandmother, nursing homes, and the fact they do not need insurance. You will find very interesting. Be sure to read my comments at the end of the dialogue of the segment.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6114558
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