Health News
- Hospitals, Doctors, Chamber Join Nursing Homes' Lobbying For Panels To Make Initial Reviews Of Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Under fresh pressure from a coalition of health care and business groups, state lawmakers are discussing the long-lobbied idea to submit medical-malpractice lawsuits to review panels that could give initial opinions about their merit. The Kentucky Hospital...
- Beshear To Study Nursing-home Staffing Minimums, Suggests Homes' High Liability Costs Are Related To Poorly Ranked Care
Responding to a letter from Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, which cited a low ranking for the state's nursing homes, Gov. Steve Beshear said he is "committed to taking steps toward improving the quality of care in Kentucky nursing homes,"...
- Bill To Shield Nursing Homes From Lawsuits Clears Senate Along Party Lines; Not Looking Healthy In House Despite Tv, Radio Ads
Last week the state Senate approved on party lines a bill that would make lawsuits against nursing homes go through a review panel first. Republicans supported the bill and Democrats voted against it in a 23-12 vote that marked the clearest...
- Nursing Homes Push For Lawsuit Protection With Fast-moving Bill And Broadcast Ads; Newspaper Editorials Excoriate Sponsor, Industry
A state Senate committee has approved a bill that would require lawsuits against nursing homes to clear a review panel before going to court, a move that has drawn very sharp criticism from the editorial pages of the state's two largest newspapers....
- Effort To Boost Oral Health In Nursing Homes Gets Tangled Up With Industry's Attempt To Insulate Itself From Lawsuits; Both Bills Die
A bill to get nursing-home residents better dental services "appears to be dead after the Senate added language from another bill designed to shield the nursing-home industry from litigation," Deborah Yetter reports for The Courier-Journal. House Bill...
Health News
Nursing homes want panel to review lawsuits against them
"A long-term care industry group wants a new law in Kentucky that would create medical review panels to evaluable potential lawsuits against nursing homes, personal care homes and some facilities for the intellectually and developmentally disabled," reports Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The panel would be made up of three physicians and chaired by an attorney who would not be allowed to vote. The panel's findings would be admissible in court. The panel would "help eliminate frivolous lawsuits against the long-term care industry," said Ruby Jo Cummins Lubarsky, president of the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities. "Kentucky's long-term care profession has seen a drastic increase in litigation from lawyers whose sole practice has been limited to targeting our nursing facilities. Their primary tactic is to exploit the integrity of our survey process with misleading advertisements designed to alarm the public about a supposed failure to provide quality care in our facilities."
The Kentucky Justice Association, formerly the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys, is against the proposal because it "makes nursing home corporations less accountable for the neglect and abuse of Kentucky's elderly citizens," said Maresa Fawns, the association's executive director. Bernie Vonderheide, founder of Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, is also opposed, saying the formation of medical review panels is "blatantly unfair to residents of nursing homes."
The proposal has not yet been filed for the 2012 General Assembly. House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a lawyer, has said he "would never support any measure that would deny a person his or her day in court if injured," but added he understands "that small, rural nursing homes are in extreme jeopardy because of out-of-state predatory law firms. Given that, the only responsible thing is to gather information on the issue and keep an open mind." (Read more)
- Hospitals, Doctors, Chamber Join Nursing Homes' Lobbying For Panels To Make Initial Reviews Of Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Under fresh pressure from a coalition of health care and business groups, state lawmakers are discussing the long-lobbied idea to submit medical-malpractice lawsuits to review panels that could give initial opinions about their merit. The Kentucky Hospital...
- Beshear To Study Nursing-home Staffing Minimums, Suggests Homes' High Liability Costs Are Related To Poorly Ranked Care
Responding to a letter from Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, which cited a low ranking for the state's nursing homes, Gov. Steve Beshear said he is "committed to taking steps toward improving the quality of care in Kentucky nursing homes,"...
- Bill To Shield Nursing Homes From Lawsuits Clears Senate Along Party Lines; Not Looking Healthy In House Despite Tv, Radio Ads
Last week the state Senate approved on party lines a bill that would make lawsuits against nursing homes go through a review panel first. Republicans supported the bill and Democrats voted against it in a 23-12 vote that marked the clearest...
- Nursing Homes Push For Lawsuit Protection With Fast-moving Bill And Broadcast Ads; Newspaper Editorials Excoriate Sponsor, Industry
A state Senate committee has approved a bill that would require lawsuits against nursing homes to clear a review panel before going to court, a move that has drawn very sharp criticism from the editorial pages of the state's two largest newspapers....
- Effort To Boost Oral Health In Nursing Homes Gets Tangled Up With Industry's Attempt To Insulate Itself From Lawsuits; Both Bills Die
A bill to get nursing-home residents better dental services "appears to be dead after the Senate added language from another bill designed to shield the nursing-home industry from litigation," Deborah Yetter reports for The Courier-Journal. House Bill...