Senate committees to hear testimony on nursing home arbitration bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Special Committee
on Aging will hear arguments both for and against the Fairness in Nursing Home
Arbitration Act this Wednesday.
The joint committee will meet at 10:30am in the Senate Dirksen Office Building to discuss the pros and cons of prohibiting arbitration agreements as a prerequisite to nursing home admission. Many nursing home and healthcare agencies worry that, without arbitration clauses, Medicaid money could end up being spent on legal fees and settlements instead of treatment and quality improvement. Arbitration opponents argue that the practice is unfair and strips the elderly of their right to a trial.
Among those testifying: Alison
Hirschel, president of the National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home
Reform; Kelley C. Rice-Schild, executive director of the Floridian Nursing
& Rehabilitation Center; lawyer Ken Connor; and law professor Stephen J.
Ware. Aging Committee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) will preside over the hearing.
