As the coronavirus death toll climbs, the nursing home industry is asking states for immunity from lawsuits for owners and employees of the nation's 15,600 facilities.
"We are responding to a disaster," said Charles Downs, corporate counsel for Virginia Lutheran Homes, a LeadingAge member that has two facilities in the Shenandoah Valley. He says the industry's request for immunity would apply only to the lower bar of what is known as"general negligence" and would not rule out lawsuits for cases of"gross negligence" or extreme neglect.
In Illinois and Arizona, the governors signed executive orders that do not specifically list nursing homes but do immunize health care providers broadly. The Illinois order, for example, refers to"health-care facilities." While at least a dozen states have moved to provide immunity for health care facilities through executive orders or legislation, the laws vary as to whether they explicitly include nursing homes.Heidi Li Feldman, an expert on tort law at Georgetown University Law Center, said nursing homes are commonly included under the umbrella of"health care providers.
Feldman said it would be odd if states immunized health care providers without providing"counterbalancing precautions to incentivize people to be cautious — even in an emergency situation." Van Der Linden said the nursing homes were working with a broad coalition of health care organizations."We are continuing to work with the language that everyone can agree on," he said, adding that he remained hopeful that the governor would decide in their favor.Download theIn Connecticut, the state Hospital Association asked the governor to issue an executive order to protect health care facilities working on the state's COVID-19 response.
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