Proponents claim the decision would protect both patients and long-term care facilities. Advocates disagree.
“Advocate groups are rallying to protect an Obama-era rule that would give patients and their families the right to sue long-term care facilities. The Trump administration has threatened to roll back the rule and implement revisions that would make filing such suits virtually impossible.
“The rule specifically states that facilities that rely on Medicaid or Medicare may no longer use forced arbitration clauses in their patient agreements. Forced arbitration, which nearly all facilities include in their standard contract, essentially prevents consumers from taking an organization or business to court, requiring them to hash out their problems in private,” according to Think Progress.
The Trump administration will stop at nothing to protect the powerful at the expense of the poor and vulnerable. Now, they want to scrap a rule that would allow nursing home patients to take facilities to court for abuse.
The industry has come under pressure in recent years for forcing patients to sign arbitration agreements, a strategy to avoid lawsuits and public scrutiny. The Obama administration sought to protect the elderly by limiting federal dollars to facilities that use the tactic. That was then.
The Trump administration called the rollback part of their strategy to reduce "regulatory costs." We have a responsibility to care for the sick and elderly, not make it easier for people to abuse them. The cruelty of this president has no limits.
By Melanie Schmitz
