Nursing home staff and physicians are
increasingly using powerful guardianship laws to declare patients to be
incompetent to make their own decisions, and then are using the powers to
collect on disputed bills, reported the New York Times. Along the way, they
often undermine the rights of patients' own loved ones and caregivers as well.
"Few people are aware that a
nursing home can take such a step," reported the Times. "Guardianship
cases are difficult to gain access to and poorly tracked by New York State
courts; cases are often closed from public view for confidentiality. But the
Palermo case is no aberration. Interviews with veterans of the system and a
review of guardianship court data conducted by researchers at Hunter College at
the request of the New York Times show the practice has become routine,
underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families
amid changes in the financing of long-term care."
"(Lawyers and others versed in
the guardianship process agree that nursing homes primarily use such petitions
as a means of bill collection — a purpose never intended by the Legislature
when it enacted the guardianship statute in 1993," stated the Times.
To Collect
Debts, Nursing Homes Are Seizing Control Over Patients (New York
Times, January 25, 2015)
--Rob Wipond,
News Editor
This
entry was posted in Advance Directives & Substitutes, Featured News, In the News, Legislation & Regulation, Seniors. Bookmark the permalink.
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Thank You Mr Wipond and MIA.
All together now, can we get a standing ovation for those much vaunted, saintly 'Medical Ethics' this industry continues to pontificate about?
No?
Kind'a thought not.
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