Nursing Home Reform Group
Opposes Caps on Malpractice Claims

January 17, 2003
President Bush's proposed medical malpractice "reform" would strip America's 1.6 million nursing home residents of their rights, safety and dignity, said Donna Lenhoff, executive director of the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform.

The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), which represents non-profit nursing homes, disagreed.

"The president has made liability limits in medical malpractice cases a top legislative priority, and today he urged Congress to impose a nationwide cap on damages," Lenhoff said. "Severely restricting non-economic and punitive damages in nursing home cases would allow the suffering of residents to go unpunished."

"Excessive litigation against aging services providers has become a national issue. The lack of reasonable limits on litigation against health care providers is one of the single biggest threats to long-term care," said Marsha R. Greenfield, AAHSA Senior Attorney.

"We applaud the President's support for legislation that would set reasonable limits on excessive lawsuits against health care providers, including nursing homes. Nursing homes urgently need the relief this proposal would provide from the growing volume of often baseless litigation that has resulted in sharp increases in their medical liability insurance premiums," Greenfield said..

The comments remarks were in response to President Bush's proposal to place a $250,000 cap on non-economic damage awards and limit punitive damage awards in medical malpractice cases.

Because frail elderly and disabled nursing home residents are not able to receive economic damages -- awards that compensate for lost wages -- only non-economic damages can compensate them for their suffering, Lenhoff said.

Limiting non-economic and punitive damages in cases of nursing home abuse and neglect betrays some of our nation's most vulnerable and defenseless citizens," Lenhoff said. "We know that a shocking number of frail elderly and disabled nursing home residents suffer from abuse and neglect."

"Capping non-economic and punitive damages in these cases would give nursing homes virtual immunity for the abuse and neglect of residents entrusted to their care," she said.

Greenfield said the risk of litigation raises costs and imperils quality of care.

"Insurance costs are often passed on to private-pay residents of nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities. As a result, older adults and their loved ones, who thought that they had planned wisely for retirement, may see aging services becoming unaffordable due to increased insurance costs," she said. "Nursing homes already in precarious financial condition must devote more and more of their limited resources to insurance premiums, leaving even fewer dollars available to pay staff and cover other essential operating costs."