Illinois Bill Would Refund Fines for Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
A bill before the Illinois General Assembly would let state regulators return fines paid by nursing homes for abuse or neglect if they use the money to improve patient care. However, Senate Bill 321 is generating outrage from opponents.
According to Wendy Meltzer, the director of the Illinois Citizens for Better Care in Chicago, it takes away the “financial disincentive for bad behavior.” Meltzer is questioning the morality of giving back fine money that an Illinois nursing home had paid for abusing, neglecting, or causing the wrongful death of a patient.
Illinois Senator Dan Kotowski, who sponsored the bill, says this is a way to make sure that the nursing homes fix the problems that caused such incidents to occur in the first place. Following a meeting with the bill’s opponents earlier this month, however, Kotowski said he is open to changing the legislation.
Meltzer says most nursing home fines are too small to really affect an Illinois nursing home’s financial well-being. In 2007, Illinois nursing homes were fined $3.5 million. According to Public Health spokesperson Melaney Arnold, nursing home fines generally range from $10,000 to $300,00 for violations. The llinois Department of Public Health can impose state finds but it can only recommend federal fines.
The bill also calls for taking away funds from a special Illinois fund that pays for Public Health monitors and receivers. Monitors stay at nursing homes where there have been problems to observe patient care, while receivers take temporary charge of Illinois nursing homes that are “in trouble” because of the poor care they’ve provided.
Meltzer argues that nursing homes are there to provide a certain standard of care to patients and that they shouldn’t have to require a refund of their fine to finally begin providing the kind of care that is mandated by Illinois law.
Nursing Home Care
Illinois nursing homes are in business to provide elderly and sick residents with the proper medical care and attention that they need. They should be fined and cited anytime a nursing home patient gets injured, his or her condition deteriorates, or he or she dies because workers were neglectful, abusive, or reckless and the nursing home violated its duty of care to the resident.
Opponents of nursing home bill outraged, Sj-r.com, March 7, 2009
Who Regulates Nursing Homes?, Illinois Department of Public Health
Relate Web Resource:
If you feel that your loved one is a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect, please contact our Chicago nursing home abuse neglect law firm at The Law Offices of Steven J Malman & Associates, PC.
