Tennessee Law Blog

Nursing home abuse--like most widespread, longstanding problems--unfortunately doesn’t make the news very often. It’s usually only publicized when some new Tennessee nursing home is closed because of care violations, staff abuse, or general neglect. That’s why I found it refreshing when NewsChannel 5 (Nashville) reported Friday on the general issue of Tennessee’s negligent nursing home care and not just on a single nursing home's violations.

Anchors opened the story with simple facts about Tennessee nursing home suspensions (20 state-suspended admissions in 2007, three times 2005’s number of nursing homes) and covered much of the same ground I’ve blogged about this past year, including the Tennessee Veterans Home in Murfreesboro’s multiple cited violations for preventing violence among their residents and the three nursing homes whose Medicare was cut off because of violations and closed in 2007 (Cornelia House in Nashville, Mitchell Manor in Lebanon, TN and the Ripley Healthcare Center in Ripley, TN).

Again, the general poor care of these individual Tennessee nursing homes was not the story. NewsChannel 5 instead chose to explore how it is difficult and unfair to Tennesseans that options for better care or home care are not available. Their suggested solution, and you can read more here, is to make managers and nursing home staff “worry about their jobs” by expanding options for facilitated care for our Tennessee elderly.

“Of the more than one billion dollars spent by Tennessee and the federal government on long term care, 99 percent goes to nursing homes. It's the highest rate in the country. The state rarely helps people take care of a loved one at home.”

While this may be a step in the right direction, the other way of reducing abuse does not involve making the overworked nurses and nursing home staff “worry about their jobs” or subsidizing home care. Instead of shooting the messenger, we can hold accountable those who own nursing homes who have a larger control of their conditions. Owners are the ones who cut jobs in Tennessee nursing homes and turn a hefty profit off Medicare (as I’ve blogged here). Their decisions often determine whether or not residents will have the personal attention necessary to prevent falls, bedsores, and others forms of negligent nursing home injuries.
These persons listen to a bottom line and profits. The way to cut into the profits made from inferior care is a nursing home abuse lawsuit. Such nursing home lawsuits not only help relieve the injured or their survivors of medical bills and costs, they promote better quality care across the board. Fill out HHP’s quick contact form to speak with me about any questions or concerns you may have.

The day before Thanksgiving, and many of us are rushing to write our blogs and last minute correspondences before we board a commercial airline and trust our lives to those tin birds whose wings don’t flap. But I feel safe flying. As Superman says in the movies, “Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel.”

But human error can and does occur.

When this human error leads to aviation accidents that inevitably lead to wrongful death or catastrophic injury, a personal injury attorney can help survivors find a monetary form of compensation for the loss of life or loss of quality of life from an aviation crash.

Personal injury attorneys--such as myself who make our living assisting injured clients recover losses from the negligence of another--rarely use the expression “automobile accidents” except in mixed company. Rather, the more accurate expression plaintiff’s attorneys use is “automobile collisions.” An accident implies an unexpected event or no-fault mistake, something beyond the power to control. Accidents rarely happen. Some entity is usually responsible for the crash. This is especially true in aviation “accidents.”

No two airplane crashes are identical. Various factors from pilot error to defective airplane equipment can be responsible for an airplane tragedy. Determining what factor was responsible--whether it was air traffic controller negligence or improper maintenance or something else responsible for the airplane "accident"--requires skilled legal investigation and knowledge of the aviation industry.

The Nashville Law Offices of Higgins, Himmelberg & Piliponis represents injured clients throughout Tennessee who have suffered serious neck or spinal injuries, disability, or wrongful death from aviation accidents caused by operator error, defective airplane equipment, or other negligence.

The last thing I want is for you to see gremlins out on the wings of your jet.

I wish you the safest of travels during this, the airlines’ busiest, time of the year. But if you have suffered injury from a crash or other aviation accident, HHP has the legal resources to help Tennesseans win damages that will help ease the pain when life is abruptly, permanently changed. Do not accept an insurance company’s settlement without first speaking with me or another Tennessee aviation accident attorney.

For a free consultation, contact Attorney Jim Higgins, Tennessee aviation accident lawyer online or call 615.353.0930.

The recent citations Tennessee Veterans’ Home in Murfreesboro has received for nursing home neglect have been receiving some news coverage of their own today, perhaps because it is Veterans Day, perhaps because of the two women greeting the patriotic parades today in downtown Nashville with pictures of two veterans who had fallen not during combat but, according to their survivors, from neglect in the Murfreesboro veterans’ home.

Some have commented that such a display at such a time is disrespectful. As a personal injury attorney representing the injured and survivors of many Tennessee nursing home abuse cases, I am unconvinced.

Rather, what better time to bring attention to the mistreatment of our veterans than on the day we honor them?

Tennessee Veterans’ Home in Murfreesboro is a 140-bed nursing home is owned by the State of Tennessee that has frequently been cited for nursing home violations.

Of the five most recent violations, Tennessee nursing home regulators found three were of the “immediate jeopardy” category, meaning these deficiencies put the Murfreesboro nursing home residents’ health and safety in immediate danger. Because of these violations, the veterans’ home cannot accept new patients and will be fined until these deficiencies in care are corrected.

Tennessee regulators had previously levied fines and forbidden the nursing home from admitting new patients, 3 times in the past 16 months.

In the most recent inspection, a veterans’ home resident with a history of aggressive, violent assaults on other residents was found to have razor blades on his person, carried with violent intent after striking another resident. Another resident tried choking a resident for hollering. Again, these weren't the first instances of violence or the nursing home neglect that allows for such resident-on-resident violence. A previous inspection in June had found violent attacks among patients, including one requiring hospitalization of the veterans’ home resident.

Continue reading "Veterans Home Cited for Neglect" »

This last fiscal year (10/01/06 – 09/30/07), federal False Claims lawsuits (which I’ve previously written about here, here, and elsewhere) recovered over $2 billion in taxes through settlements and judgments, according to figures released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Of this amount, $1.45 billion was recovered by False Claims lawsuits initiated by qui tam whistleblowers who themselves were awarded $177 million last year. These whistleblowers, known as “relators,” are offered special legal protections including anonymity during initial proceedings and anti-retaliation protections regardless of the district court’s judgment in the False Claims lawsuit.

Under the 1986 False Claims Act Amendment, relators are awarded 15% - 25% (and in some cases more) of the government’s recoveries. Corporations who knowingly defraud the federal government ("false claims") are liable for up to thrice the government funds falsely billed plus $5,500 to $11,000 for each false claim. Since the passing of the 1986 amendment to the False Claims, over $20 billion has been recovered.

About half of the total federal recoveries are from Medicare and Medicaid fraud. The remaining portion of False Claims recoveries are from false billing to the federal government, whether the Department of Defense or other government entity. In recent years, Lockheed Martin, Conoco Phillips, PacifiCare Health Systems, OfficeMax, Oracle, and Hewlett-Packard have all been brought to court from qui tam relator’s whistleblowing.

In the 2006 fiscal year, federal qui tam relators were awarded over $190 million. Tennessee False Claims relators receive an even larger percentage of qui tam awards, usually between 25%-33% of the decision or settlement.

Contact HHP if you have information on Medicare/Medicaid or other false claims receiving federal or Tennessee state funds and wish to speak with a Nashville qui tam lawyer about taking action as a False Claims whistleblower.

Next month I will be flying to New York with my client and two witnesses to arbitrate a case that occurred in Tennessee. We have to argue this case out of state and pay thousands of dollars to a private arbitrator chosen by the company that injured my client. We have to arbitrate this case because my client unknowingly entered into an arbitration agreement when he signed up for services with the company. My client gave little thought to the arbitration clause because his needs were urgent and he trusted the company. If he only knew now what he knew then he would have never signed the agreement.

This week congress will be reviewing the laws surrounding arbitration agreements. Arbitrations were originally thought to be a great answer to an overcrowded court system. Unfortunately, big companies are using the agreements to discourage claims and put victims in an unfair positions. Now instead of having a claim resolved by a jury of your peers, people are forced to pay thousands of dollars to arbitrate any claim. This leaves many without any recourse. So be careful next time you are asked to sign an arbitration agreement. If you have questions with regard to an arbitration clause give us a call.