Proposed Legislation Strips Nursing Home Residents of Their Legal Protections

Billion Dollar Nursing Home Industry Seeks Unprecedented
Protections While Violations are at Record High

National Healthcare Corporation Among Those Seeking Protection
Just Four Years Since Fire Killed 16
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(Business Wire)--
Just four years since the National Healthcare Corporation (NHC)
nursing home fires killed 16 residents in Nashville - and in a year
when nursing home violations and admission suspensions are at an all
time high - Tennessee nursing homes are seeking unprecedented legal
protection from residents who are abused or neglected.

The move came two days after Governor Phil Bredesen announced he
will fundamentally restructure how long-term care is handled in
Tennessee by expanding alternatives to nursing homes.

State Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) and state Rep. Randy Rinks
(D-Savannah) introduced the bill last week that would severely
restrict the rights of nursing home victims and their families to seek
justice no matter how bad the injury they suffer and no matter how bad
the conduct of the home. The type of neglect and abuse recently
documented in Tennessee nursing homes ranges from maggots in wounds to
untreated broken bones to rape.

NHC, which reported more than $500 million in annual gross profits
in 2006 and whose CEO Robert G. Adams makes more than $1.3 million a
year, is one of the supporters of the legislation. NHC is the same
corporation that owned the Nashville nursing home where 16 residents
perished in September 2003, and that owns a nursing home in Milan,
Tenn. that put residents "at risk of injury or death from a fire,"
according to a June 20, 2007 inspection report of the Tennessee
Department of Health.

The legislation would ensure that:

-- Residents would have little to no recourse against nursing
homes no matter how bad the conduct of a home.

-- Nursing homes can demand that residents sign arbitration
agreements in order to live there, making nursing home
residents the least protected class in the state.

"This proposed legislation is a slap in the face to some of
Tennessee's most vulnerable citizens - the residents of nursing homes
and their families," said Karla C. Hewitt, president of Tennessee
Citizen Action, a grassroots consumer protection organization. "How
dare the nursing homes propose such a bill just four years after 16
people perished in a fire that was caused by its negligence, and in a
year when nursing home violations are at an all-time high."

"Nursing home residents are suffering. Inspectors have found
residents with maggots in their wounds and broken bones that aren't
treated," Hewitt continued. "And now this billion dollar industry
wants to take away the rights of individual residents to sue? This
shows how low the nursing homes will go to protect their shareholders'
profits."

Though the nursing home industry complains of legal fees, in fact
only four medical negligence verdicts were awarded against Tennessee
nursing homes from 2005-2007. Residents and their families sued in
those cases for death, head injury and global neglect.

During that same period, nursing home admission suspensions
tripled. In 2007, 22 nursing homes had their admissions suspended for
putting their residents in "immediate jeopardy." According to records
at the Tennessee Department of Health, the 152 immediate jeopardy
violations in those homes include reports of patients suffering the
following:

-- Risk of injury or death by fire

-- Maggots in wound

-- Broken bones unattended for days

-- Drastic weight loss due to improper nutrition/oversight

-- Impacted bowels caused by inattention/oversight

-- Extreme pain with no relief

-- Fear of staff

In addition to these violations, a worker at a home in Madison was
arrested in May 2007 for raping a 70-year-old resident. And in 2008,
the state has already suspended two more nursing homes.

"When you consider the atrocities that occurred in 2007 alone,
this proposed legislation is outlandish," said Donna DeStefano,
Tennessee Citizen Action board member. "We as Tennessee residents and
taxpayers need to voice our concerns to our state representatives.
There is nothing subtle about what the industry is proposing. This is
a blunt-force instrument to the law that protects residents against
horrendous care. Our elderly are defenseless and we must protect their
rights."

The State of Tennessee allocates 99% of funding from the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services - more than $1 billion a year - to
nursing homes and only 1% to home and community-based care. This makes
Tennessee dead last in the nation in providing alternatives to nursing
homes. Governor Phil Bredesen pledged in his State of the State
address last week to fundamentally restructure this system so there
are more alternatives to nursing homes.

"These nursing homes are raking in record profits," said
DeStefano. "They say lawsuits divert their attention when the fact of
the matter is only four occurred across the state in 2007. Lawsuits do
not cause bad care. Bad care causes lawsuits."

About Tennessee Citizen Action (TNCA)

TNCA is Tennessee's consumer watchdog organization working on
behalf of a number of consumer protection issues, including patients'
rights; nursing home reform; quality health care; increased home- and
community-based options with more consumer control; title lending;
aftermath of sub-prime lending crisis; workplace health and safety;
and voter education, registration, GOTV, problems with electronic
voting and lack of a paper trail. TNCA is a grassroots citizen group
based in Nashville seeking to build a unified movement for reform in
Tennessee. TNCA works to create long-term political change by building
diverse coalitions around our major issues. The organization actively
works in coalition with a range of health care, environmental,
government reform, and labor organizations. For more information,
visit: http://www.tnca.org.

Tennessee Citizen Action
Shelby White, 615-327-7999

Copyright Business Wire 2008