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Schedule Registration Housing |
| Friday, January 7, 2000 8:30-10:15 a.m. |
Delaware Suite A Marriott Wardman Park Hotel Mezzanine Level |
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Section on Aging and the Law |
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| Linda S. Whitton, Valparaiso University, Chair | |
| Joan L. O'Sullivan, University of Maryland, Program Chair |
| Nursing Homes and the Law: How to Enforce Quality of Care? |
| Moderator: | ||
| Joan L. O'Sullivan, University of Maryland | ||
| Speakers: | ||
| Marie-Therese Connolly, Senior Trial Counsel and Nursing
Home Initiative Coordinator, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
Toby S. Edelman, Esquire, National Senior Citizens Law Center, Washington, D.C. Malcolm J. Harkins, III, Esquire, Proskauer Rose, L.L.P., Washington, D.C. |
| The nursing home industry is under increasing pressure to improve the quality of care it provides to residents. Elderly residents and their families have been winning multimillion-dollar tort claims for negligent care. The Justice Department has favorably settled False Claims Act cases because nursing homes failed to provide the care for which they filed claims with Medicare and Medicaid. These cases are examples of an effective public regulatory system and can serve as models for efficient public enforcement. Further, in 1998 President Clinton made nursing home enforcement a priority of his administration. As a result, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is imposing civil fines and terminating federal funding when a nursing home repeatedly fails to meet minimum health and safety standards. |
| The industry has fought back by challenging the inspection procedures promulgated by HCFA. In Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, a case now before the Supreme Court, the Illinois Council on Long Term Care claims that HCFA's health and safety standards are unclear and leave too much discretion to inspection teams. It also claims they violate the Administrative Procedure Act and has asked the court to find the rules unconstitutional. A federal district court in Kentucky recently dismissed a tort claim filed by a nursing home resident's estate because the admissions contract contained a binding arbitration clause. In state action, nursing homes have filed suit to enjoin termination of Medicare and Medicaid funding, which often results in the closing of the nursing home, by claiming that the government may not terminate funding in the absence of immediate jeopardy to residents. They cite the threat of "transfer trauma" to residents if they must be involuntarily moved because the nursing home must close. |
| Business Meeting at Program Conclusion |