Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Hands Down Landmark Opinion
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a landmark opinion that affects county-owned nursing home facilities in that Circuit.
The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Nursing Home Reform Amendments give residents of county-run nurisng home facilities the right to bring lawsuits under Section 1983 concerning the quality of their treatment. "The language used throughout the FNHRA is explicitly and unambiguously rights-creating," stated U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Nygaard in his 23 page opinion concerning Grammar v. John J. Kane Regional Centers. Judge Nygaard further stated, "These provisions make clear that nursing homes must provide a basic level of service and care for residents and Medicaid patients."
The ruling concerns a suit brought by the Administratrix of the Estate of Melvinteen Daniels, an 80 year old mother of eight who died in an Allegheny County, Pennsylvania operated nursing home facility after suffering neglect, malnourishment, and fatally severe bed sores, leading to Ms. Daniels death by sepsis.
Judge Nygaard found that nursing homes "are required to care for residents in a manner promoting quality of life, provide services and activities to maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of residents, and conduct comprehensive assessments of their functional abilities" and that the statute "specifically guarantees nursing home residents the right to be free from physical or mental abuse, corporal punishment, involuntary seclusion, and any physical or chemical restraints imposed for the purposes of discipline or convenience and not required to treat their medical symptoms".
FNHRA are amendments to the Medicare Act that were passed in 1987 as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act that were meant to address concerns of poor quality care in state and county run nursing home facilities. Prior to the passing of FNHRA, there were "only two sanctions available against nursing homes for noncompliance with federal participation requirements. First, the Secretary of Health and Human Service or the states themselves could decertify the facility and terminate the nursing home's eligibility to receive Medicaid reimbursement. Second, if noncompliance was not an immediate and serious threat to the residents' health and safety, the Secretary or the states could deny payment for new admissions for up to 11 months." These remedies were rarely used.
