|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
|
 |
Restrictions on nursing home residents pass House
Committee By ADAM NOSSITER BATON ROUGE, La. - A House
committee spent Monday morning wondering when nursing home residents can
sue, and in the end, first trial lawyers, then industry lobbyists, claimed
victory. The lawyers applauded a
decision not to put all nursing home suits under the restrictive umbrella
of medical malpractice claims, a change that would have capped awards at
$500,000. Critics saw the proposed change
as a big restriction on the rights of mistreated or neglected residents to
get redress, and an amendment to the bill in the House Civil Law and
Procedure Committee diluting it significantly left the lobbyists shaking
their heads. It has already passed the
Senate in its original form, sponsored by the Senate President John
Hainkel, a recipient of substantial contributions from the nursing home
industry. But then the lobbyists won an
effort to restrict suits that can be brought under what is known as the
"resident's bill of rights," a broad, legislated listing of
obligations to people in nursing homes. It includes rights like
privacy, dignity and respect, and is frequently used by people suing
nursing homes. A nursing home lobbyist expressed satisfaction about the
outcome Monday, suggesting the second bill was more important to his
industry than the first. "They knocked out the
independent action under the residents' bill of rights," said Tom
Cowan. "I don't care about the other one." Trial lawyers who spoke against
the first bill at the lengthy hearing Monday suggested that virtually any
example of nursing home neglect or abuse would have been smothered by the
malpractice cap. They cited, for example, the
case of a nursing home patient allowed to wander into the street.
"They want you to put your imprimatur on anything that happens in
nursing homes as medical malpractice," said attorney Chris Roy. But amendments by Rep. Shirley
Bowler, R-Harahan, stripped the bill of the contingencies objected to by
the lawyers. Under the second bill, nursing
home residents will no longer be able to recover damages if they sue under
the bill of rights. They would simply be allowed to get an injunction,
forcing the nursing home to halt the offensive practice. That change, the lawyers said,
strips the bill of rights of its meaning. Lawyers will be uninterested in
handling suits that result only in injunctions, they said. "Why waste your money seeking an injunction for a violation of basic rights?" asked Troy Bain of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association. "Injunctive relief is no relief. You might as well repeal the whole thing," he said. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
