Florida Lawmaker Calls for Statistics on Nursing Home Suits

During a Feb. 6 meeting of the Florida Legislature's Senate Health, Aging and Long Term Care Committee, Florida state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite (R), a "key lawmaker," expressed her concern that the state's nursing homes have not disclosed how many lawsuits they face each year, the AP/Florida Times-Union reports. Nursing home administrators have said that "runaway lawsuits are the culprit for skyrocketing" liability insurance rates, while attorneys, patients and consumer groups say that "the blame should be paced on" care quality and "greed by nursing home operators," the AP/Times-Union reports. Brown-Waite told Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan (R): "I want to know and I think that every member of the Legislature needs to know: How many lawsuits are out there?" Brogan was appearing before the committee to review work by a panel he led -- the Task Force on Availability and Affordability of Long Term Care. That panel, which was created last year to recommend nursing home improvements, was unable to come to an agreement on what to do about nursing home lawsuits. Brogan said that if nursing homes provided the number of lawsuits they face, the information could be used against them. He added that statistics show the state's nursing homes are three times more likely to be sued than nursing homes around the country. Research from 1999 suggests that the state's nursing homes reported 23 lawsuits for every 1,000 beds, compared to a national figure of seven lawsuits for every 1,000 beds, the Times-Union reports (Hallifax, AP/Florida Times-Union, 2/7).

Capping Lawsuits, Pooling Homes
During the meeting, Brogan also warned that "there would be dire results," unless the Legislature addresses long term care when its two-month session begins March 6. He said, "If we don't get serious in this state ... we are headed in a very quick fashion to a point in time where people are not going to have anywhere to put their 85-year-old grandmom. There will be no nursing homes left to sue." He added that while neither he nor Gov. Jeb Bush (R) wants to "take away" nursing home residents' right to sue the facilities, "something must be done to stop the volume of lawsuits (Daytona Beach News-Journal, 2/7). Also addressing nursing home lawsuits, State Rep. Nancy Argenziano (R) suggested that nursing homes pool together to purchase liability insurance, similar to pools the Legislature provides for residents of hurricane-prone areas. Argenziano said she did not know how much such a pool would cost, but indicated that it would be "cheaper" than if the state took over management of nursing homes whose owners had left (Mattson, Florida Union-Tribune, 2/6).