Nursing Home Arbitration Agreements: A Bad Deal for the Resident

Dan Frith

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Lauren Ellerman and I spend a great deal of our professional time representing residents and their family members in cases of nursing home abuse and neglect.  In today's world you no longer see the local nursing home operated by a local family known to the community and known to provide good care for the elderly who reside at the facility.  The five largest nursing home operators in America own over 1,000 facilities with over 151,000 beds.  Today, nursing homes are owned by huge corporations whose primary focus is on the bottom line...making money!  The best way to make money is to reduce expenses...and the best way to reduce expenses is to reduce the number of employees (nurses and nurse aides) who care for the residents.  The result...overworked staff and poor care for the residents.

Now, many nursing are adding "insult to injury" by taking away your right to hold the owner of the nursing home legally accountable for the provision of substandard care by requiring you to sign a Arbitration Agreement before entering the facility.  The Arbitration Agreement, typically buried in the admission contract, provides that while the facility may be able to sue you for nonpayment of charges, you may not file a civil lawsuit against the facility for negligent acts which harms or kills the resident!  You must resolve your dispute with before an arbitrator, sometimes chosen by the nursing home and almost always paid for by the nursing home.  Could any arrangement be more unfair?

Congress needs to act now to prevent the use of mandatory arbitration agreements in nursing home admission contracts.  Until Congress acts, don't sign these arbitration agreements!  If you do...its like giving the nursing home operators a free pass to provide substandard care!