Suppose that your loved one is
confined to a nursing home. When you visit, you see probable signs of physical
abuse. Or, as occurs in about 7% of abuse cases, your loved one credibly reports sexual assault.
For many years, a federal agency has collected
data on nursing homes, including reports and investigations into abuse.
Until recently, lawyers who sued
nursing homes for patient abuse could get this information at no cost.
No more. Even when information is
requested via the Freedom of Information Act, the Trump administration is
charging lawyers for the data and reports.
Ernest Tosh, a lawyer suing
for patient abuse, was told by CMS (the federal agency) that it would charge almost
$53,000 to fulfill a request for five years of “cost statements” filed by all
U.S. nursing homes.
Jonathan Steele confirmed
the new practice: “They took data that they’d produced in its entirety free of
charge prior to the [2016] election, and then started charging a thousand
dollars to search for the data, and then would send us a letter saying they’ve
redacted portions of the data that made the data unusable for our purposes.”
On Friday, two prominent elder abuse
law firms announced that they are suing the American Health Care Association,
the main lobbying group for nursing homes. They seek records to show that the
group has lobbied the administration for more restrictions on disclosure of
nursing home records.
A main objective in the lawsuit is to
see why so many nursing homes are staffed below levels that are required in
order to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. That’s why the data
are important for protecting the elderly who are in confined care situations.
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