Trump Moves to Impede Consumer Lawsuits Against Nursing Homes
By ROBERT PEARAUG. 18, 2017
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is pushing to scrap a rule that would have made it easier for nursing home residents to sue nursing homes for injuries caused by substandard care, abuse or neglect, bringing its campaign to relax federal regulations to the delicate business of care for older Americans.
The push would undo a rule issued by the Obama administration that would have prevented nursing homes from requiring that consumers agree to resolve any disputes through arbitration rather than litigation. Nursing homes routinely require consumers to sign an arbitration agreement as a condition of admission to the home.
The proposed rule brings together a broader private-sector effort to slip binding-arbitration clauses into the fine print of consumer contracts with the Trump administration’s expansive efforts to roll back regulations and reduce the costs to businesses.
But both matters are particularly sensitive when it comes to older Americans, especially those in nursing homes where such arbitration agreements have already blocked legal recourse, even in egregious cases. About half of nursing home residents have Alzheimer’s disease or other dementia, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and consumer advocates say harried family members could easily miss the arbitration clauses as they move a loved one into a home offering care.
“Individuals are very vulnerable when they sign contracts to enter a nursing home,” said Kimberly A. Valentine, a lawyer in Orange County, Calif., who has represented scores of nursing home residents. “In many cases, they are transferred from a hospital, and they are in a nursing home bed for several days before the contracts are even signed. The arbitration agreement may be just one page in a voluminous contract of 30 to 40 pages. Most of the people who come to me have no idea they’ve even signed an arbitration agreement.”
The Obama administration tried to ban such agreements, saying it was “almost impossible for residents or their decision-makers to give fully informed and voluntary consent to arbitration before a dispute has arisen.” Poor or negligent care at some nursing homes has persisted, even after the facilities have attracted regulatory scrutiny.
But the Trump administration says the ban on arbitration agreements imposes “unnecessary or excessive costs on providers” of nursing home care. It noted that President Trump, in an executive order, had directed agencies to roll back rules and reduce “regulatory costs.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cited that guidance from the White House in issuing the new proposal.
“Upon reconsideration,” the Trump administration said of the proposed nursing home rule, “we believe that arbitration agreements are, in fact, advantageous to both providers and beneficiaries because they allow for the expeditious resolution of claims without the costs and expense of litigation.” The money that nursing homes spend on lawsuits could be better used caring for patients, it said.
Nursing homes generally welcomed the proposal, but other reaction has been overwhelmingly negative.
The attorneys general of 16 states, led by Brian E. Frosh of Maryland and Xavier Becerra of California, strongly opposed the Trump administration proposal.
Binding arbitration agreements “may be neither voluntary nor readily understandable,” and “this is especially true when consumers are making the difficult decisions regarding the long-term care of loved ones,” the attorneys general said in a recent letter to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/us/politics/trump-impedes-consumer-lawsuits-against-nursing-homes-deregulation.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0
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