A series of reports of incidents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in which patients have been injured through assault and neglect has led state Sen. Bill Stanley to propose legislation which would require the facilities to carry sufficient insurance coverage to compensate injured patients and their families for their injuries and losses.
“I was astounded to discover that the institutions in which we place our most vulnerable citizens, our aging, frail seniors, are not required to carry any liability insurance at all,” said Stanley, who represents the 20th District, which includes part of Danville and Pittsylvania County.
“These are our parents and grandparents – the members of the greatest generation – who are so vulnerable as they get older, and we are not ensuring that they receive fully adequate care by not insisting that the facility be able to care for them after abuse or neglect.”
Stanley’s investigation showed that there have been cases involving sexual assault of patients, physical assault of patients, and neglect of patients, where the nursing homes or assisted living facilities did not pay for the damages they caused because they had no insurance to pay the claims and no assets either.
In one case, a woman was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a manager of a facility. After a judgment was entered, the defendant simply filed bankruptcy and refused to pay. There was no insurance to pay for the care of the elderly victim.
In another instance, a patient physically assaulted an elderly resident, who later died from the injuries. When the family sued, they found that the facility, which had not properly segregated the dangerous patient and had not protected the deceased patient, had no assets and only $100,000 in insurance coverage, which was decreased by the costs of defending the claim. In essence, all of the coverage went first to the defense lawyers.
The parents of an adult child with cerebral palsy found a similar situation where they sued the nursing home for the death of their child, who suffocated due to improper use of breathing equipment and inadequate supervision and care.
They found that the facility had only $50,000 in coverage and that the available proceeds, again, were reduced by the costs of defense. The parents said that if they had realized that the facility had such poor insurance, they never would have placed their daughter there.
“These examples make it clear that we have neglected to provide an element of needed care for our most vulnerable elderly,” Stanley, a Franklin County lawyer, said.
“Therefore, I have proposed legislation which will require the nursing homes and assisted living facilities to have this coverage. We require homes for adults and adult and child day care facilities – why not our nursing homes and assisted living facilities?”
Stanley’s bill, Senate Bill 750, is in the Senate Education and Health Committee.