2009 February 24th
The Bush administration shut off a source of information last fall about abuse and neglect in long- term care facilities that people suing nursing homes consider crucial to their cases. A new Rule designates state inspectors and Medicare and Medicaid contractors as federal employees, a group usually shielded from providing evidence for either side in private litigation.
Click to read the entire article from Bloomberg News
2009 February 10th
The Department of Health and Human Services now says you can’t have copies of inspection reports that might explain how your loved one in nursing home care came to have a broken bone, or bruises. The request for reports on such incidents “divert employees from their federal survey, certification and enforcement responsibilities,” said Michael Leavitt, HHS secretary.
HensonFuerst Nursing Home blog viewers are encouraged to contact HHS and express their concerns about this new Rule.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: 202-619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775
Click to read the entire article appearing on www.timesgazette.com
2008 December 16th
From Anne Duvoisin, Attorney/Partner, HensonFuerst Nursing Home
Practice: “45 CFR Part 2, “Testimony by Employees and the Production of Documents in Proceedings Where the United States Is Not a Party,” passed without comment by the Bush administration in its waning hours, will substantially and adversely impact nursing home residents and those that advocate on their behalf. It is hoped that a new administration will undo this regulation, which will prevent lawyers from taking the depositions of surveyors and make access to surveyors’ notes very difficult if not impossible to achieve. Often, the only way what happens to a resident is discovered, is through state investigation. Now, the results of those investigations will be much more difficult to obtain and may in many instances be unobtainable.”
Click HERE to read and review 45 CFR Part 2, “Testimony by Employees and the Production of Documents in Proceedings Where the United States Is Not a Party.”