A bill recently passed by the Louisiana Senate that aims to limit damages awards for plaintiffs suing health care management companies would deprive nursing home residents’ families of a means to hold the facilities accountable for injuries, critics say.
Senate Bill 134, authored by Sen. Thomas Pressly (R-Shreveport), passed the state Senate on April 30 by a vote of 26 to 11 and has been referred to the lower house’s Committee on Health and Welfare. The bill would bring health care management companies under the liability protections of the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act, which limits the total damages recoverable for a claimant to $500,000 and limits liability for individual health care providers to $100,000 per claim.
Supporters have said that such protections for nursing home management companies – entities that are not directly involved in the practice of medicine but oversee services such as accounting and payroll – would reduce their exposure to large wrongful death or injury claims and help them remain financially viable, to the benefit of Louisiana families.
It would provide victims with an avenue to reasonable compensation while maintaining affordable, accessible health care options in the state – a balanced result, supporters of the bill say.
But opponents, including the AARP of Louisiana, say the bill would remove a protection that nursing home residents and their families have to protect against abuse or neglect.
“Liability functions as a tool to make sure that nursing homes comply with the law, and we’ve seen oversight on these places decrease over the decades,” Andrew Muhl, director of advocacy for the AARP of Louisiana, told the Louisiana Record.
The AARP of Louisiana receives countless phone calls and emails from caregivers and families who report their loved ones are dealing with pressure sores or falls due to staff shortages at the facilities, according to Muhl.
Under current law, subpar care can result in a costly legal action, offering a disincentive to nursing homes to downsize staffing, he said.
“If this law passes, that’s out the window,” Muhl said.
New Orleans attorney Matthew Coman, whose law firm, Garcia & Artigliere, has filed numerous legal complaints against nursing homes, said SB 134 has been dubbed the “Bob Dean Protection Act.” That moniker refers to the former nursing home owner who was sentenced to probation and agreed to a multimillion-dollar civil settlement for a botched nursing home evacuation in the wake of Hurricane Ida in 2021.
“If this law were in place back then, Bob Dean would basically be immune from civil exposure,” Coman told the Record.
He said passage of SB 134 would actually result in the filing of more lawsuits since nursing homes would see little financial benefit to increase staffing, potentially leading to more injury cases. The bill would also not lead to more nursing home options for Louisiana families because a moratorium on nursing facilities and the addition of beds in such facilities is in effect through July of 2027.
Currently, Louisiana has the largest proportion of nursing homes that are rated with one or two stars out of five in a rating system provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And Louisiana was recently rated 49th among the 50 states for nursing home quality by the publication U.S. News.
“The lack of competition here breeds poor care and breeds more lawsuits,” Coman said. He added that Louisiana would be the first state to grant health care legal protections to non-health care providers if SB 134 passes the Legislature and is signed into law.