Please call and email your legislator, identify yourself as a constituent, and urge them to consider the protection of nursing home residents before the interests of the nursing home industry. 

To find your legislator, visit Online Sunshine, the home site of the Florida Legislature. There you will find the names, phone numbers and email addresses of the legislators. 

We've provided a Q&A on this subject below!
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The Legislature created the 19-member Task Force on the Availability and Affordability of Long-Term Care near the end of the 2000 legislative session. It was asked to examine Florida's nursing homes and other long-term care facilities and programs and to make recommendations to the governor and legislators. The task force's failed to reach a consensus, but delivered a series of proposals that the Legislature is now considering. Some of these proposals seriously threaten the rights of older Floridians and their families and may become law unless legislators hear from citizens like you. How can I help?

What are AARP's objections to the proposals from the Task Force on the Availability and Affordability of Long-Term Care?

AARP's believes frail elders and their families have the fundamental right to long-term care that is free from abuse, neglect and exploitation. The task force's recommendations focus too much on protecting the rights of business interests in the nursing home industry and not enough on assuring quality care in nursing homes and other places where Floridians receive long-term care. For example, the task force's proposal would make it almost impossible for elders and their families to use all means possible to guarantee quality care, such as suing bad nursing homes where residents are injured and sometimes die. 

But aren't these lawsuits against nursing homes frivolous?

AARP has challenged the long-term care industry and their friends in the business lobby to show the public these "frivolous" lawsuits. The reality is that elders and their families go to court because some nursing homes provide poor and sometimes horrendous care, not because it's an easy way for them and their lawyers to make money. 

Two recent reports seriously question the quality of care in nursing homes: 

Many nursing homes in the Palm Beach and Broward Counties showed "serious deficiencies. Eighty-one percent of the nursing homes in this area of South Florida violated federal health and safety standards during recent state inspections. Moreover, 30% of the nursing homes - nearly one in three - had violations that caused actual harm to residents." This is according to a Jan. 30, 2001 report, "Nursing Home Conditions in the 19th Congressional District of Florida: Many Homes Fail to Meet Federal Standards for Adequate Care." The report, prepared by staff members of the House Committee on Government Reform, concluded that many nursing homes in the district "are failing to provide the care that the law requires and that families expect." 
 

The problems aren't limited to nursing homes in one area of Florida. A U.S. General Accounting Office report in September 2000 said that that "about 15 percent of the nation's 17,000 nursing homes - an unacceptably high number - repeatedly had serious care problems that caused actual harm to residents or placed them at risk of death or serious injury (immediate jeopardy)." Among the key findings from it and a series of other reports in 1999 and 2000 included the following:
 

"The results of state surveys understated the extent of serious care problems, reflecting procedural weaknesses in the surveys and their predictability." 
"Serious complaints by residents, family members, or staff alleging harm to residents remained uninvestigated for weeks or months." 
"When serious deficiencies were identified, federal and state enforcement policies did not ensure that the deficiencies were addressed and remained corrected." 
"Federal mechanisms for overseeing state monitoring of nursing home quality were limited in their scope and effectiveness." 

Such findings are why AARP objects to portions of the task force proposal on limiting nursing home lawsuits and urges seniors and their families to demand they be eliminated. 

Some people say nursing homes lawsuits should be 
treated like medical malpractice cases. Will that work? 

No. Medical malpractice laws limits who can bring lawsuits against doctors and hospitals and the type of damages that can be awarded. Generally only the closest family members can sue, and damages usually are tied to lost earnings from jobs. This wouldn't work in lawsuits against nursing homes, where at times residents have few close family members. And just because an injured nursing home resident isn't working doesn't mean he or she shouldn't be compensated for poor or dangerous care. To treat nursing home suits like medical malpractice cases essentially could take away the rights of seniors and their families to use all means available to assure quality care. How can I help? 

But even if the lawsuits aren't frivolous, aren't they causing insurance rates to skyrocket and putting nursing homes out of business? 

Some for-profit nursing homes in Florida and across the nation are in financial trouble, but the reason is not lawsuits. The industry reaped profits at the expense of patient care in the 1990s. When the federal government cut Medicare reimbursement rates in 1997, some nursing homes found they had made bad business decisions - like expanding too quickly, overcharging for services, or paying executives and stockholders too much - that put their companies and their residents at risk. A U.S. General Accounting Office report in September 2000 said the bankruptcies did not result because of Medicare payment changes, but from business decisions. Lawsuits against poor performing nursing homes are not the reason some industry homes are in financial trouble or that insurance rates are rising. 

But I've heard that if the Florida Legislature doesn't make it harder to sue nursing homes that there won't be any nursing homes left in the state in a few years. Is that true? 

Such statements are designed to scare frail elders and their families. Some for-profit nursing homes are in bankruptcy, but new owners have shown interest in buying many of them. If a few nursing homes are in danger of closing, the state can step in until new owners are found. The state already has the power to take over chronically poor nursing homes. 

Some people are saying AARP is aligning with trial lawyers.

AARP represents the interests of its 2.6 million members in Florida and all elders and their families and no other group. Our decision to fight for long-term care reform and against those who want to take away elders' rights is motivated only by an interest in seeing quality care provided in all settings, whether it is in the home, assisted living facility, or nursing home. How can I help? 

Still, aren't insurance rates a problem, even for many good nursing homes? I've heard that some insurance companies for nursing homes are leaving the state? 

There is an urgent need to find a solution to rising insurance rates. But the solution will come from insurance-related recommendations, such as providing financial assistance to nursing homes that do the best job taking care of their residents or perhaps forming an insurance pool as the state does for homeowners. Insurance companies themselves say that eliminating the right of frail elders and their families to sue bad nursing homes will not lower rates or bring back insurance companies that are leaving. 

How do you know that nursing home insurance rates won't drop if the Legislature makes it harder to sue homes? 

Texas tried it and it simply didn't work. Rates did not drop and insurance companies did not return. The fact is that the reasons for rising premiums are complex and deserve an insurance solution that does not stand in the way of residents' rights to quality care in nursing homes. How can I help? 

What is AARP proposing for long-term care reform? 

For too long, Florida has not had a true long-term care system. Too many elders and their families find it difficult or unaffordable to get the kind of care they want, need, and deserve. Florida puts too much emphasis on providing care in expensive nursing homes when elders would rather receive care at home or in less intensive settings, like assisted living facilities. In the absence of a federal initiative, Florida needs to create alternatives to nursing homes. The state also needs to strengthen its oversight of nursing homes to assure bad homes improve or are closed and that good homes thrive. The Legislature has a unique opportunity this session to make true reform. Florida's seniors and their families should not let business interests that are looking at the bottom line of nursing homes be put ahead of quality care and long-term care reform. How can I help? 

I keep hearing that unless the Legislature makes it harder to sue nursing homes that long-term care reform will die? Is that true? 

Such statements are designed to try and force legislators to accept bad proposals, such as limiting the right to sue nursing homes where people are injured and die, in exchange for accepting good ideas, like more home and community care. The Legislature often takes up parts of issues and votes separately, especially on complex proposals like long-term care reform. Legislators need to be reminded by voters that it's important that all aspects of this situation be considered - but not if it means bad ideas pass along with the good ones. 

When will the Legislature take up long-term care reform?

Action already has started in committee hearings. The full Legislature starts its 60-day session on March 6. It's important to get involved NOW to assure the rights of Florida's elders and their families are preserved.