Nursing Homes
IT TOOK less than 20 minutes Thursday morning for a House committee to pass its package of watered-down “reforms,” leavened with millions of dollars of goodies for the nursing home industry.
The bill makes it harder to hold homes accountable when they put patient lives in jeopardy and easier for bad operators to avoid paying damages to injured patients. Yet the bill passed unanimously in the Special Committee on General Laws, chaired by Assistant Majority Leader Mark Wright, R-Springfield.
In January, after a Post-Dispatch series on nursing home abuses, House Speaker Catherine L. Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, said nursing home reform was among her top priorities. Now is the time to prove it.
Ms. Hanaway’s staff says she was not personally involved in watering down the reform bill. But Mr. Wright is one of Ms. Hanaway’s top lieutenants, and the bill was crafted by Republicans, Rep. Mike Sutherland of Warrenton, and Speaker Pro Tem Rod Jetton of Marble Hill. Ms. Hanaway can make sure her underlings fix the bill.
The weakened bill would:
* Remove the state’s ability to make sure nursing-home fines are collected.
* Prevent the state from introducing videotaped statements by abuse or neglect victims in disciplinary proceedings against nursing homes. A Senate reform bill would allow the statements in cases brought by the state when the victim had died or become incompetent.
* Change the way nursing homes are paid, pumping an extra $72 million each year into the pockets of nursing home owners. Higher payments to nursing homes don’t make sense when the Legislature is cutting health care for kids and the mentally ill.
The full House is expected to vote on the bill next week, but you can have your say sooner. Call Ms. Hanaway at 573-751-8510 to remind her about her promise to protect the elderly. Tell her the House should pass a bill that is no less stringent than the Senate bill.
Mr. Jetton wrote provisions to increase payments to nursing homes. Call him at 573-751-5912. Ask how increasing payments to nursing home owners makes them more accountable for their patients’ well-being.
Mr. Wright kept the bill secret and then sped it through committee. Call 573-751-6562. Ask why he was in such a hurry.
Mr. Sutherland managed the bill for House Republicans. His number is 573-751-2689. Ask him why nursing home owners deserve more protection than vulnerable patients.
