Health Care Reform Bill Includes Provisions to Prevent Resident Abuse in Long Term Care Facilities

The health care reform bill signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 includes important provisions to prevent abuse of long term care residents. The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act, included in the bill, requires facilities to provide more information to the public about risk factors for negligence, abuse, and neglect such as staff turnover and retention, the outcome of complaints against the facilities, and proven crimes by facilities and employees against residents. The additional information will be provided on Nursing Home Compare, a databank already available on Medicare.gov, the federal government’s official Medicare website.

The Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act creates a national program for criminal background checks of long term care employees, so that employees convicted of abuse or neglect cannot simply move to another state to work in a different long term care facility. Holding long term care facilities and their employees accountable for negligence, neglect, and abuse is key to preventing future harm to long term care residents.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of negligence, neglect, or abuse in a long term care facility, contact Benjamin Gideon at bgideon@bermansimmons.com

For more information on the provisions affecting long term care in the health care bill, see National Consumer Voice for Quality Long Term Care website

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