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.
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