Several weeks ago, we celebrated the demise of a Tennessee bill that would have severely limited compensation for nursing home patients who had suffered the worst kinds of abuse and neglect. The “Kill Old People Cheap Act,” as it had come to be known, thankfully, never made it out of committee. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for a similar bill currently under consideration in Louisiana.
The Louisiana law, known officially as “HB 72,” is aimed at restricting nursing home residents’ ability to seek justice in court for injuries caused by non-medical staff performing “patient-related services.” (That is, injuries incurred through common daily activities such as moving from place to place, eating, bathing, and dressing.)
In a nifty bit of legislative jujitsu, the law would accomplish this cruel objective by expanding the state’s current definition of “medical malpractice” to encompass these day-to-day activities—thereby subjecting them to the state’s draconian malpractice caps.
Needless to say, HB 72 represents the opposite of showing respect for one’s elders.
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