WASHINGTON, DC – Abuse of the elderly in nursing homes is an ugly, little secret that needs airing and it goes beyond physical abuse, says the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC).
AMAC president Dan Weber is calling for states, localities and the federal government to use their authority to ensure the safety of nursing home residents. “Family members need to get involved, as well. They need to check out their chosen facilities to find out if there is a past history of abuse. Once a loved one takes up residency in a home, they should make regular, unscheduled visits to make sure their loved ones are not being mistreated.”
Recent reports show that abuse is on the rise again. In the first seven months this year, there have been a dozen new reports of nursing home mistreatment. That’s the same number of new such incidents that were reported in all of 2015.
The newest form of abuse in homes for the elderly is the degrading and demeaning practice of taking inappropriate cell phone photographs and videos of residents and posting them on social media, Weber notes. Some of these pictures and videos even anonymously document physical abuse inflicted by unknown staff members, he adds.
It’s gotten so bad that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS] issued a stern warning, threatening homes with immediate loss of Medicare eligibility if they don’t take action to prevent abuse.
The warning came in a memo that read, in part: “Nursing homes must establish an environment that is as homelike as possible and includes a culture and environment that treats each resident with respect and dignity. Treating a nursing home resident in any manner that does not uphold a resident’s sense of self-worth and individuality dehumanizes the resident and creates an environment that perpetuates a disrespectful and/or potentially abusive attitude toward the residents.”
Weber says that “while they are at it, CMS should revisit the issue of arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts. It’s a different kind of abuse, but it is abuse just the same when residents and their guardians are precluded from taking legal action when there is a dispute over the quality of care they are receiving. CMS has a lot of clout and a ruling on their part would go a long way toward correcting the injustice of forced arbitration. Appropriate government agencies, such as the CMS, have a responsibility to protect residents against one-sided residency agreements.”
The Editorial Board of the New York Times recently took the CMS to task on this issue and although we don’t always agree with the Times, we are solidly with them on this matter, Weber says.
In a recent Opinion Article, the board concluded that:
“The … Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, should have banned pre-dispute arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts. Â Instead, they basically condone them as long as these homes take some legalistic steps to explain and disclose the clauses and do not make signing them a condition of admission. Â Those provisions skirt the real problem. Â Prospective patients do not have the necessary information to make a decision about signing the clauses. Â How could they before a dispute even arises? Â In essence, families are being asked to anticipate the likelihood of grievous harm and legal ramifications. Â A nursing home admission is stressful and confusing enough without your being asked to sign away your right to sue.”
.){kind=link}