We Believe House Bill 361 Would Delay Access For Nursing Home Residents To The Court System
Posted in Featured Articles on February 7, 2012Hughes and Coleman attorney Sheila P. Hiestand, president of the Kentucky Justice Association, wrote the following article for the Advocate about a nursing home bill that is being considered by the state legislature.
As the great philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This quote is quite apropos for the 2012 Kentucky State Legislature, and it is our job to help them remember. Over and over throughout our great Commonwealth’s legislative history we have seen large corporations, well funded special interest groups and greed-driven organizations attempt to sway our legislators into taking away an individual’s access to the Court system or to his Constitutional right to trial by jury. Each time the Kentucky Justice Association, our members and our clients have fought to protect those rights and have had to remind everyone, including the media and the millionaires, that our Country is founded on higher ideals than lining the pockets of the rich to rob the poor of their only recourse.
Sadly, this scenario is playing itself out again in the form of House Bill 361 (HB 361) sponsored by Representatives Henley, Floyd and Lee. This Bill proposes to delay access for nursing home residents to the Court system. Sponsored by the multi-million dollar international nursing home industry, this legislation would impose a panel system like the Indiana panels have for malpractice claims. History has demonstrated that Indiana’s panels serve only to delay access to the courts; increase costs for the injured patient; misrepresent the true facts of the case due to limited access and discovery; and place the financial burden squarely at the feet of those who are the least able to pay. The driving force behind this bill is to allow Nursing Home conglomerates to continue to short-staff their facilities, which has repeatedly resulted in substandard care. In fact, the inescapable data clearly shows that the best way to fix the problem of substandard care in nursing homes is to increase staffing, not to throw road blocks up against the residents. There is a direct correlation between increased staffing and better care, and as a result a direct correlation between increased staffing and decreased claims of neglect. There is a very simple solution to their perceived nursing home crisis: improve the staff to resident ratio. Period. There is no need for millionaire-protecting, Constitution-ignoring legislation.
The position taken by the lucrative nursing home industry is that the mom and pop nursing homes in small rural communities who cannot afford insurance are taking the brunt of the attacks, and that litigation is driving them out of business. What their spin doctors do not tell mom and pop is that this proposed legislation mandates that they either have insurance of $750,000 or that they post a cash bond for that amount. Clearly, with such language, this bill is not intended to protect poor mom and pop who can’t afford coverage. Rather, it is a thinly veiled attempt to protect corporate millionaires who would choose profits over resident safety.
Please, let us show our Senators and Representatives that this is not right. Let us remind them of the long history of Big Industry and Insurance Companies who try to force legislation that places profits over patients. Greenbacks over Grandmom. This legislation does not protect their constituents. It does not protect the elderly and disabled who are least equipped to protect themselves. It protects millionaires.
NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT! Call Frankfort and call your Representatives. Tell them that HB 361 is terrible for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Have your clients call and remind their representatives that they do not support this all-out attack against nursing home residents. I have called for my grandmother who was in a nursing home; for my parents who will likely one day require skilled care; for the millions of residents in this country who cannot call for themselves. Please call today.
