Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods Who's Whoring Down for the Nursing Home Industry?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 4:52 AM
National Healthcare Corp., which owned the Nashville nursing home where 16 residents died in a fire five years ago, and the Tennessee Healthcare Associaton have given nearly $700,000 in election campaign cash since 2000. The bill's Senate sponsor, Jim Tracy, has raked in more than any other lawmaker. Along with Tennessee Health Management, which also is backing the bill, the groups are employing 31 lobbyists. At last report, they had spent upwards of $850,000 on all this lobbying. That money could go to improve care for nursing home residents, which in turn would reduce negligence lawsuits. But why do that when you can just ram a law through the legislature?
"It's obscene," says Tom Peters of Tennessee Citizen Action, which opposes the bill. "These legislators are putting a campaign contribution over someone's life."
Here are the bill's sponsors (the Terrific Ten, we're calling them): Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), Rep. John Lundberg (R-Bristol), Rep. Steve McDaniel (R-Parkers Crossroads), Rep. Vance Dennis (R-Savannah), Rep. Bill Harmon (D-Dunlap), Rep. Lois DeBerry (D-Memphis), Rep. Jason Mumpower (R-Bristol), Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma), Rep. Glen Casada (R-Franklin), Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas).
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
The fact is, the trial lawyers have fed at the trough by suing nursing homes in Tennessee for too long. They prey on the emotions of families in order to get multi-million dollar judgments -- of which up to 45% of those dollars go directly to these out-of-state trial lawyers (plus expenses). Apparently, the Scene is whoring for the trial lawyers.
like
dislike
Wow, they thought those legislators were worth a little more than two helpless old people. And I thought the legislators were worthless!
No Mr. Ingram, the fact is trial lawyers hold accountable those nursing homes that act negligently and end up harming our most fragile citizens. I'd be willing to bet that if you had a loved one that was abused you'd be singing a different tune. This bill wants to remove their accountability. I'd hate to see what will happen if trial lawyers aren't able to hold them accountable. Can our nursing homes quality be ranked any lower than it already is?? This is a bad bill and I hope everyone calls their legislator to tell them so.
I don't think anyone's into seeing lawyers take 45 points on a settlement, George, but this bill is just ludicrous. The nursing home industry has a horrible history of customer safety. But as Jeff points out, they've continually found it easier to buy preferential laws than improve services -- not just here, but nationwide.
If you have an idea to take lawyers out of the equation, I'm all for it. But leaving grandma to rot just because you don't like trial lawyers? St. Peter's gonna beat you 16 ways to Tuesday for thinking like that.
I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Grandma's our first priority. And I'm just stunned that people who consider themselves moral would back something like this. There's no way you can call taking protections away from Grandma family values. This is sinning on the deepest level, my brother.
