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Archive for the ‘Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect’ Category

Dangerous Assisted Living Facilities Do Not Deserve State Funds

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

Instead of yanking funding from an assisted living facility after an elderly resident died from burns after being left in scalding tub water, the State of Florida imposed a relatively small fine. Later, when it was learned that a caregiver punched a mentally ill resident, at an ALF the State of Florida issued a warning, instead of stopping funding. Similar tales occur commonly in the assisted living facility and nursing home communities in Florida, and things seem to get worse every year.

If a loved one is a victim of neglect, negligence, or abuse in a nursing home, call the experienced nursing home negligence and abuse lawyers at CGWC. Our team of nursing home lawyers are skilled and exquisitely experienced at suing nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Unlike many law firms, we have chosen to continue representing residents even when nursing homes and assisted living facilities are commonly operating uninsured. Call for a free consultation.

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Doctors Accept Kickbacks, But Don’t Pay the Price

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Since 2008, major pharmaceutical companies have paid $6.5 billion to settle accusations of paying kickbacks and engaging in marketing fraud. The doctors who accept these kickbacks, in return for widely prescribing a particular pharmaceutical (or advocating that it be prescribed for off-label uses) have been named as co-defendants in many of these lawsuits. In the lawsuits that settled in the past 3 years against pharmaceutical companies for this type of marketing fraud, 75 doctors were named as co-defendants. A recent investigation by ProPublica found that not one of these doctors has been disciplined for the instrumental role they played in these fraudulent practices.

The practice of acting as a paid spokesman is one we are all familiar with. Michael Jordan tells us that Hanes makes good underwear, but we all realize that he is being paid by Hanes to do so. For a doctor to use the respected position they enjoy in our society to influence how patients make decisions about their health is to be expected. However, for them do so based on which pharmaceutical company is paying them the biggest kickback, without disclosing those transactions to the patient, is verging on criminal.

We applaud the decisions that have forced drugmakers to pay for the fraudulent marketing schemes they have pursued. However, this fraudulent marketing only works when there are two sides involved: the pharmaceutical company and the doctor. As long as the doctors implicated in these frauds are not disciplined or held accountable, the pharmaceutical companies will continue paying doctors kickbacks to push their products for uses not approved by the FDA, or to patients who would be better served by other medicines. The Justice Department usually pursues these claims based on information provided by “whistleblowers” from the pharmaceutical companies. The drugmakers settle these cases for huge amounts of money, although the sums involved are negligible when compared to the revenues generated by the drugs they are marketing. The doctors, although they seem to be the “small fish” in a case like this, are equally culpable and should be held accountable whenever they are complicit in these fraudulent practices. Without such a precedent being set, the pharma companies will look at these settlements as an acceptable cost of doing business, and find another doctor willing to accept kickbacks. The only way to stop this cycle of fraud is to hold ALL of the guilty parties responsible.

Posted in Insurance and Consumer Rights, Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect, Product Liability | Comments Off

Assisted Living Facilities Under Grand Jury Probe

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

According to an article in the Miami Herald, assisted living facilities in Florida with a record of neglect of their elderly residents are under a grand jury probe. The investigation by the grand jury is intended to get to the bottom of reports of abuse, neglect, and the breakdown of state oversight of the facilities. Bentley Lipscomb, former secretary of the Florida State Department of Elder Affairs, says that the grand jury should investigate more than just the dangerous conditions in the assisted living facilities.  He says the investigation should include the roles of lawmakers who began stripping away crucial regulatory protections and failed to intercede when regulators began cutting back on inspections.

There are almost 3,000 assisted living facilities in Florida, and at CGWC we have seen neglect and abuse is widespread. We also agree that there is woefully little oversight and supervision by the state licensing authorities.  What’s more, it is getting worse, not better. The best protection against abuse and neglect is accountability in civil court for the harm caused to residents. This is done by experienced nursing home and assisted living facility lawyers like the trial attorneys at CGWC.

If you suspect a loved one has been the victim of abuse or neglect at an assisted living facility or nursing home, call CGWC for a free consultation.

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What Do Nursing Homes Have to Hide?

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

Seven different nursing homes have recently filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Florida agency that regulates them. In a federal lawsuit against the Agency for Health Care Administration, the nursing homes dispute the rights of the husbands and wives of dead residents from getting their records so they can know what the nursing home records say about the care their loved ones received. The nursing homes argue that a state law that permits widows and widowers to get the records conflicts with the federal medical records privacy law known as HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. These nursing homes insist that widows and widowers should first have to petition a state probate court to be legally appointed the “personal representative” of the deceased before they can legally demand the nursing homes’ records of care. The nursing homes insist that the federal law prohibits relatives, including widows and widowers, from getting copies of nursing home records showing what happened to their loved ones unless they first spend thousands of dollars in legal fees to open an estate in probate court, even when the loved one left no assets, no property and no will, and regardless of whether the relatives can afford to open an estate. Why? What are they hiding? Is this fair?

We can tell you why. They know that the more expensive they make it, the more likely that the family of an abused or neglected senior citizen will just go away and leave them alone, even if they and their staff abused and neglected their loved one to death. This is wrong. Call your legislator and demand that the HIPAA law be clarified to guarantee unfettered access to the medical and nursing home records of loved ones, without the necessity of spending thousands of dollars to open an estate.

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Hospitals Understaffed

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

Like nursing homes, hospitals are often understaffed with nurses and aides. Fearing retaliation, many times nurses do not complain, even when they are concerned that the understaffing might be affecting patient safety. Let’s face it, the fewer nurses to provide care, the more hospitals have to cut corners, increasing the danger of medical errors. Sometimes, nurses can remain quiet no longer. This week nurses banded together to protest understaffing at Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford, Florida. Some nurses even complained they were being assigned to units they weren’t trained for, such as the cardiology unit. The nurses also complained that delays in addressing staffing puts patients in jeopardy. Of course, it goes without saying that understaffing in nursing homes, hospitals, and doctor’s offices leads to medical errors and patient injuries and deaths. If you believe you or a loved one has been a victim of medical mistake or error, call CGWC for a free consultation.

Posted in Medical Malpractice, Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect | Comments Off

Support The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 has been introduced by several U.S. senators and members of Congress, and it is legislation that deserves your vocal support. Designed to remedy recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings against consumers on arbitration issues, the legislation’s goal is to restore consumers’ rights to seek redress in courts. This legislation would eliminate forced arbitration clauses in consumer, employment and civil rights cases. It would allow consumers to choose between courts of law and arbitration panels AFTER the disputes arise, rather than being forced to participate in arbitration only. The legislation would also ban forced arbitration in nursing home cases.

Call your Senator and Congressman to urge them to support this legislation. The Senate bill is S. 987 and the House of Representatives version is H.R. 1873, The U.S. Senate bill S. 987 has 12 co-sponsors, and H.R. 1873 has 64 co-sponsors. Passage of the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2011 would be a gigantic step back toward an even playing field in disputes between big businesses and consumers.

Posted in Insurance and Consumer Rights, Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect | Comments Off

Florida Headed To Dark Ages of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse

Sunday, May 15th, 2011

Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel writes that Florida is well on its way back to the dark ages when it comes to nursing home neglect and abuse. Much of the changes have been made by the current Florida Legislature and Executive branch. Regulations are being rolled back, and watchdog programs are being “neutered”. Staffing requirements were lowered by law enacted just a week ago. Maxell notes that all of this is happening while horrific examples of abuse are on the rise. For example, in Pinellas County, a 75 year old priest wandered away unsupervised from a facility and was found in a lake, his body ripped apart by alligators, while in the Florida Panhandle, an assisted living facility owner threatened residents with a stick and refused them medicines and food. In South Florida a resident died from burns received in a bathtub, and Maxwell reports that residents are dying at a rate of once a month from abuse and neglect. As Scott Maxwell notes, there may be profit in neglecting the elderly, but it is inhumane. Contact your legislator and oppose further relief for nursing homes and assisted living facilities because they will surely return to Tallahassee next year for more special favors, like less regulation and more restrictions on lawsuits and damages juries can award to abused senior citizens.

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The Failure of Florida’s Assisted Living Facilities

Friday, May 6th, 2011

The Miami Herald conducted a year-long investigation of Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) in Florida, and recently published the first in a three-part series reporting their findingsThe Herald staff studied state inspection records, autopsy reports and court cases, in addition to interviewing ALF residents and staff. Their investigation has revealed shocking evidence of abuse and neglect in Florida ALFs, and has shown that the agencies tasked with regulating these facilities have often failed to do so. The Miami Herald’s reporting seems to suggest that the safeguards intended to protect elderly and mentally ill residents of ALFs are simply being ignored. Florida has the nation’s highest percentage of residents over the age of 85. Yet somehow, our state’s public spending on programs for the elderly is the lowest in the nation. And as the number of ALFs in our state skyrocketed over the past decade, the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has steadily cut back on the oversight they are intended to provide.

NPR’s Morning Edition did a radio report on the lax enforcement of ALFs in Florida this week, based on the Miami Herald investigation. You can find the NPR report here. If the trend of understaffed Florida ALFs neglecting their residents continues, and AHCA continues refusing to flex its regulatory muscles, we will surely see a growing number of tragedies like the ones these reports have uncovered. In the absence of proper regulatory oversight, it seems the only incentive for ALFs to improve their standard of care is the threat of civil lawsuits. Yet our state lawmakers are actively trying to rearrange Florida’s laws, to make it virtually impossible to sue for damages if you or a loved one is injured or killled as a result of mistreatment in an assisted living facility. The attorneys of Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter have been in Tallahassee all month fighting against the proposed changes in the law. We will continue doing everything we can to fight against any attack on seniors’ rights in Florida, and ask that you join us. Tell your legislators to protect our state’s most vulnerable citizens from abuse and neglect.

Tags: ALFs, Miami Herald, NPR
Posted in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect, Uncategorized, Wrongful Death | Comments Off

Senate Bill Puts Seniors In Danger

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

A proposed “Medicaid” bill includes changes in the laws that hold nursing homes accountable for abuse, neglect, and exploitation of nursing home residents. Testimony from victims and attorneys, including CGWC partner, Melvin Wright, opposed this bill to no avail last week. Among other things, the bill would immunize the companies that take home the profits from operating nursing homes from any lawsuits. Nursing homes all over the country, including Florida, operate nursing homes through the use of mazes of corporations, only one of which holds the nursing home license. This licensee pays all its profits to its parent or sister companies. This new law would immunize the parent and sister companies from lawsuits for injury, abuse, neglect, and even death, and leave accountable only the licensee, a company typically uninsured and easily divested of assets. Since there is no law or regulation requiring a licensee to be insured or financially accountable for harm, this new bill would be a license to kill and neglect seniors with no recourse of the victims in civil courts. The only consequence, for even the most serious cases, would be disciplinary action by state agencies or against individual caregivers in criminal courts. While Senators supporting this bill claim otherwise, its language is clear–only the licensee would remain accountable to victims of abuse and neglect.  This is wrong.  Call your legislators and urge them to vote against the passage of this bill supported by big nursing home industry interests.

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Safety of Florida Seniors At Risk

Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Thy safety of Florida’s senior citizens in nursing homes is at risk this legislative session. A pair of “tort reform” bills have been introduced and may glide through as the law of the land with big business in almost total control of Florida’s House, Senate, and the Governor’s mansion. One bill would cap damages that could be awarded to abused elderly at $ 250,000 no matter how badly they were abused or neglected. This would practically eliminate lawsuits for such abuse. Attorneys could not afford to handle abuse and neglect cases on a contingent fee because such cases often cost as much as 50-100,000 dollars in expenses to take to trial. It would be impossible to compensate the abused elder, even if the trial was won handily. The newly proposed laws would also prevent attorneys and their clients from arguing that facilities were understaffed unless they were cited for understaffing, even if there were employees of the nursing home testifying that they observed that the nursing home was understaffed. There are many other absurd provisions limiting seniors’ rights in these bills. Call your legislator and make sure they know that Florida should not be reduced to a hellhole for our seniors, our most vulnerable citizens, in the retirement capitol of the nation.

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