Insurance Issues Arise Following the Death of 87-Year-Old Nursing Home Resident
Posted in Featured Articles on January 18, 2012In 2008, Susanna West was an 87-year-old resident at Hearthstone Assisted Living Facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan – until staff left her on a bus for 14 hours in September 2008. West grew so hungry and thirsty that she opened the first aid kit and ate the Tylenol and drank the peroxide, according to news reports. After hours of searching by police, family and staff, West was finally found face down on the bus, soaked in her own urine.
West had been an extremely active resident, with bowling skills that were described as near professional and a reputation for helping other residents with their daily chores. By November, as a result of her ordeal on the bus, she was dead.
In the summer of 2010, West’s family filed a lawsuit in the name of West’s estate against the nursing home. The company never responded to requests for information and records. By August of that year, the nursing home was taken over by the Louisville, Kentucky-based Elmcroft, a senior housing and services company. Elmcroft argues that it bought only Hearthstone’s assets and not its liabilities.
Hearthstone did not have traditional liability insurance; it had a self-funded insurance plan. When the company dissolved, the insurance dissolved too. On December 8, Judge Christopher Yates approved a $1.65 million default judgment against the company. Yates said they defaulted by failing to provide the requested documents and neglecting to hire new attorneys after their previous counsel withdrew.
Will West’s family be able to collect the settlement that the nursing home owes them? That’s far from clear. Michigan, like many states, including Kentucky, does not require nursing homes to have liability insurance. While various bills have been introduced to the legislature to require this protection for nursing home residents, none has passed.
Some nursing homes without liability insurance say that they have chosen to spend the money on patient care instead. However, the result is that some nursing home victims of neglect or abuse may be unable to receive compensation for their suffering.
Note that sometimes victims have other options. They can try to recover from the nursing home owner when the nursing home doesn’t have liability insurance or when that insurance has been exhausted. However, many owners form a limited liability corporation to shield their personal assets, making recovery in these cases difficult. In other cases, plaintiffs have named staff directly involved in the abuse or neglect in their lawsuit, in an attempt to recover from them as well.
To avoid legal issues like the ones that arose in the West case, it is our opinion that states, including Kentucky, should require that all nursing homes carry liability insurance.
More Information:
87-year-old woman dies after being left on nursing home bus, becomes subject of lawsuit
The Rise Of Nursing Home Litigation: Findings From A National Survey Of Attorneys
Many Hawaii care homes lack liability insurance
Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform
