Tennessee Nursing Home Officials Pushing For Court Judgment Caps
Currently, Tennessee is one of sixteen states that does not limit the amount of damages plaintiffs can be awarded in court with a favorable judgment. Tennessee nursing home officials want to change this and support a bill introduced last year by State Senator Jim Tracy (R) and former Representative Randy Rinks (D). The bill proposed that non-economic damages, such as awards for pain and suffering, be limited to $300,000 for plaintiffs filing lawsuits against nursing homes. The bill is expected to come up in the 2009 legislative session.
Gerald Coggin, Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations for National HealthCare Corp., a nursing home operator, says that nursing homes are "delivering resources away from care to constantly defending themselves against frivolous lawsuits". Interestingly, NHC was the subject for a $34 miillion judgment against its McMinnville, Tennessee facility.
Frivolous lawsuits? Tennessee nursing homes ranked as the third worst nursing homes in the country, according to The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Of the state's 319 nursing homes, only 22 received a top rating of five stars and 111, or approximately 1/3 of the state's nursing homes, received one star, the worst rating a facility can receive.
Nursing home owners only stand to profit from the bill introduced by Senator Tracy and Representative Rinks. Limiting liability is only going to allow the nursing home owners to continue on their current path of substandard care and allow them a cheaper payoff for any injuries or death residents may suffer due to the substandard care, allowing the nursing homes to continue to increase their profits.
