Articles Posted in Nursing Home Neglect

In cases as poignant as nursing home neglect and abuse, the need for qualified, experienced legal representation is never more important. At The Higgins Firm, we have an entire department devoted to holding negligent nursing homes and assisted living facilities accountable for the lack of care they provide to their vulnerable residents.

Our extensive history of working with nursing home abuse victims and their families has made us the go-to firm in Knoxville, Nashville, and their surrounding metro areas. We strive to ensure that every nursing home victim receives our compassion and the most compensation possible for their experience.

The settlement was made with the U.S. Department of Justice after Signature HealthCare was found to have submitted forged pre-admission certifications regarding patient needs to the Medicaid program in Tennessee.

These allegations initially arose after two former employees of the nursing home company filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit. The U.S. government became involved and also accused Signature HealthCare of engaging in multiple fraudulent practices that were lead to false claims for “unreasonable, unnecessary, and unskilled services to Medicare patients.”

The two whistleblowers say they felt that it was necessary to file a lawsuit after one of their patients had been very sick for days and was not able to attend therapy. Even so, their boss demanded that the resident undergo 4 hours of therapy in a single day so that his reimbursement bill would not fall into a lower bracket.

If your loved one is being cared for in a nursing home facility, you’ll want to pay close attention to recent changes made by The Trump Administration. The implementation of fines against nursing home facilities that have been accused of neglect or wrongdoing, should be scaled back, according to The Trump Administration. This announcement comes as part of a broad relaxation of various regulations. Such a change in the penalty protocols made by Medicare was requested by the nursing home industry and their main trade group The American Health Care Association. The group has made several complaints since 2013 alleging that federal inspectors, under President Barack Obama, focused more on “catching the wrongdoing” rather than encouraging these facilities to make improvements. Continue Reading

Twenty elderly men and women went without their daily medication in a senior living home in Palm Springs, CA because there was not medical technician on duty. In Paso Robles, a senior women fell in her bedroom and waited 22 hours for help even after she pushed the emergency button. These devastating incidents are only some of those reported against one of the nation’s biggest assisted living provide: Brookdale Senior Living.

A class action lawsuit was recently filed in a Northern California federal district court. The claim details these incidents and several other which allegedly took place in Brookdale owned facilities. The lawsuit says that inadequate staffing, improper training, and rising fees are a contributing factor and part of a “callous and profit driven approach”. Multiple residents, from several locations, claim they are not assisted for hours after a fall, are given the wrong medications, and left in their waste .

The California Assisted Living Association, an industry group, has declined to comment on the matter, and so have the relatives of those involved. The spokeswoman for Brookdale Senior Living, based in Tennessee,  says the lawsuit has no merit and the company is prepared to “vigorously” defend itself.

Eventually, many of us will spend time living in a nursing home. This does not need to be a negative or stressful transition. Instead, it can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience that also increases a persons’ safety, improves their health and overall wellbeing. The key is finding a great nursing home to live in since the facility and staff make all the difference in a persons’ quality of life.

What Makes a Great Nursing Home

There are several key factors that make one nursing home better than another. They include –

In February 2016 Playboy model and ‘Queen of Snapchat’, Katie May, died after visiting a chiropractor for a neck adjustment. Earlier in the week Ms. May had fallen during a photo shoot and injured her neck. She believed to have pinched a nerve and sought the help of a chiropractor on a Friday morning. By Monday, after a weekend of extreme pain, she suffered a stroke. The mother of one remained on life support until Thursday in which she was tragically proclaimed as being ‘brain dead’.

The incident left many to wonder how the 34 year old suffered a stroke, something which tends to be more common in older people over the age of 60. According to the L.A. County Coroner, the neck adjustment tore a major artery in Katie May’s neck. This led to the cutting of the blood supply, and eventually caused a stroke.

Can Chiropractic Adjustments Cause a Stroke?

As a law firm, we help victims of nursing home abuse and neglect. This is all too common with many elderly simply not receiving the quality of care that they deserve. Whether this means a failure to provide necessary medications or outright abuse, it is important to seek legal help as soon as possible.

New Rules Enacted to Protect Residents of Nursing Homes
Now, in an attempt to protect nursing home residents, new rules have been passed. These rules must be followed for a nursing home to receive money through Medicare and Medicaid. They include:

  • Binding arbitration is no longer allowed. In the past, nursing homes have required patients to enter binding arbitration agreements when they first became residents. This prevented cases from going to court and has kept many of the abuse issues swept under the rug. Now, nursing home patients must be allowed to file a lawsuit in court unless they agree to enter a binding arbitration agreement after a dispute has already been filed. For example, if a resident has a dispute a year after living at a facility, they can choose to enter an arbitration agreement but cannot be forced to do so. This provides greater opportunities for victims to recover financial damages after abuse.

Great news for families with loved ones in nursing homes or long-term care facilities. A new rule has been issued by the Department of Health and Human Services that will allow for patients in these facilities to file a lawsuit if something goes wrong. This is a drastic departure from what has been the status quo. Traditionally, most nursing home facilities require patients and their families to sign a contract that states any dispute must be resolved quietly through forced arbitration. The arbitration process is designed to keep costs down but it also keeps things quiet. Now, victims will have the opportunity to go to the traditional route by filing a lawsuit.  This is fantastic news for any patients and their families that have been frustrated by the system.

New Federal Rule Allows Families to Sue Negligent Nursing Homes
In arbitration, both sides hire an attorney and the case is heard by an arbitrator who is typically a retired judge or an attorney with extensive experience. There is no jury and the proceedings are completely private. Both sides present information to the arbitrator and then the arbitrator asks questions until they have reached a conclusion.  At this point they will enter a decision. With forced and binding arbitration, whatever the arbitrator decides is final. This can be problematic because you cannot appeal. In a trial, if one party is not satisfied with the decision or feels that something was done to infringe upon their rights or there was bias against them, an appeal can be made and the case can be heard by a new judge. This is not true of arbitration. If an arbitrator is biased or something is done incorrectly during the proceedings, there is typically no way to appeal and the decision will stand.

Preventing forced arbitration clauses in contracts is an important way to ensure that the elderly and their families have all options available to them and can take advantage of their full legal rights. This ruling is effective November, 2016. However, not everyone will be impacted by it. Nursing homes and facilities that do not accept Medicare or Medicaid do not need to abide by this new rule. Additionally, it does not change any existing contracts but will impact new ones. This is important for you to know because if you signed a contract in August, for example, you may still be under a forced arbitration clause. However, if you were to move your loved one to a new facility, their contracts should be under the new rule which would allow you to file a lawsuit in the event of a problem.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has said it will block nursing homes from federal funding should they use pre-dispute binding arbitration agreements. What this means is nursing homes in Tennessee can no longer force their patients and families to sign away their rights to sue in court before being admitted into the facility. Nearly all nursing homes are federally funded in some way or another, so this agreement could likely have a massive impact on the industry as a whole.

Prior to this ruling being made, it has been commonplace for elderly individuals and families to have to agree to private arbitration over the United States legal system. This meant elderly people, who are being cared for in federally funded nursing homes, may have been prevented from seeking legal damages as a result of neglect, recklessness, endangerment or wrongful death.  Currently, these arbitration contracts have helped the nursing home industry reduce legal costs and total cumulative damages as well as prevent tarnished reputations and long lasting repercussions.

Unfortunately, elderly are often desperate for care and shelter and will be quick to sign something even if they don’t understand what is being noted in the contract. When certain people have attempted to seek legal assistance for a dispute, the arbitration has held up as a legally binding contract; thereby affecting some of the most vulnerable Americans. For all new contracts between nursing homes and residents, this arbitration clause cannot be included.

People entrust their elderly family members to a nursing home, placing a special trust in the staff to care for and nurture their family in the waning years of life. Unfortunately, we see time and time again that many nursing homes simply do not honor this trust, and take actions that cause harm to the patients, their finances, and their families. Whenever there is any accusation of misconduct by a nursing home, it is critical that you have an attorney who specializes in matters like this to deal with the investigation and the ensuing lawsuit, should it come to that.

Vanguard Health

Most recently, there was the case of the Brentwood, TN nursing home, run by Vanguard Health. The U.S. attorney’s office in Tennessee has filed a lawsuit against the former nursing home based on allegations of widespread fraud and abuse of patients in Medicaid and TennCare. According to documents filed by the U.S. attorney, the employees at this nursing home regularly submitted false claims for Medicare and TennCare, forged signatures of physicians and nurses, and provided grossly negligent care for the patients who were in this facility. The parent company, Vanguard Health, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but this will not protect them from the False Claims Act lawsuit filed against them by the Federal Government.

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