Florida’s nursing home lobbyists sink to a new low
A bill that has already passed its first committee hearings in the Florida House and Senate (HB 7 and SB 72) would protect businesses from lawsuits over coronavirus infections. However, some businesses are, rightfully, not covered by this proposed law. That includes health care providers, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Under this bill, nursing homes and ALFs are not afforded immunity if they negligently infect residents, harming or even killing them.
And yet, Florida’s Republican majority has promised to deliver an immunity bill for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Why? Why give nursing homes immunity when they’ve handled the COVID pandemic so poorly? And why immunize negligent deaths if there is no flood of
COVID lawsuits pending against facilities?
It is no secret that the nursing home industry was ill-prepared for COVID. This is why, in the U.S., our death toll in nursing home residents alone outnumbers most developed western countries. An even more glaring statistic: COVID deaths are not evenly distributed across all facilities. Less than 20% of skilled nursing facilities account for more than 65% of nursing home COVID deaths. This shows that certain facilities handled the virus appropriately, while a few bad actors were negligent, resulting in mass casualties.
Why immunize these bad actors? The civil justice system allows for financial disincentives to correct a for-profit nursing home corporation’s mistakes. Failure to comply with CDC guidelines is textbook negligence. And under Florida’s proposed immunity for nursing homes, this negligence will go unpunished.
Beyond the fact that nursing homes do not deserve a free pass for killing residents, there is no current onslaught of nursing home negligence lawsuits pending for COVID deaths.
The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature is finding a solution to a crisis that does not exist.
At Senior Justice Law Firm, we focus on Florida nursing home abuse litigation. Yet, as a nursing home focused firm, we have brought just four COVID cases. Similarly, we are unaware of any Florida firm filing COVID cases en masse against Florida facilities. Simply put, there is no ‘wave of coronavirus cases’ coming against Florida’s nursing homes.
This is just a lobbyist excuse for civil immunity.
No one knows for certain when we can expect the healthcare provider equivalent of HB 7 and SB 72. Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeff Brandes, a Republican out of Pinellas County, told the News Service of Florida: “There is an incredible amount of detail that needs to go into the health care [immunity] issue, and that needs to take a little more time … I can’t see Gov. DeSantis allowing the Legislature to adjourn without a sufficiently strong health-care liability legislation.”
So we do not know when it is coming, only that Florida’s Republican Party will try.
The nursing home industry is hoping to take the proposed COVID immunity language and stretch it to include ordinary nursing home negligence cases, like those involving bed sores or broken hips.
They do this by using lobbyists to sneak in a broadly worded immunity bill which can be interpreted in their favor by Florida’s right-leaning appellate courts. Make no mistake; the nursing home industry will exploit this opportunity to broaden the immunity for any harm they caused during COVID, even if the injury claimed is not COVID-related.
The end result? The Florida nursing home industry, which is historically troubled, will now have immunity. They get a free pass to neglect residents without any kind of civil liability. Call your state lawmaker and plead with them not to issue a license to kill Florida’s most vulnerable seniors.