Article Courtesy of the Gainesville Sun
By GARY FINEOUT
Posted 12-18-2002

TALLAHASSEE - Less than two years after enacting sweeping changes aimed at helping Florida's ailing nursing home industry, lawmakers appear ready to do more despite the objections of trial lawyers and even senior citizen advocates.

Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, and House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, announced on Monday the creation of a joint select committee whose primary charge appears to be finding ways to help nursing homes get liability insurance.

During the 2001 session, lawmakers passed a sweeping bill that required nursing homes to beef up their staffing and increase the amount of time they spend on patients in exchange for limitations on the ability of patients and their families to sue nursing homes.

But those who represent the nursing home industry maintain that the law passed two years ago as well as setting aside $6 million in tax dollars last year to help nursing homes obtain insurance have not helped.

Nursing home advocates hope the select committee will recommend that lawmakers enact more restrictions against filing lawsuits against nursing homes. But one of the state's leading trial lawyers questioned the need for more limits.

Jim Wilkes of the Tampa-based Wilkes & McHugh law firm pointed out that state data shows that lawsuits against nursing homes have dropped dramatically since the changes made in 2001. Just 21 lawsuits were filed in September compared with 112 lawsuits in September 2001 - a month before the new law took effect.

The trial lawyers could find an ally in AARP, the group that represents more than 2 million elderly Floridians. AARP officials say they are opposed to additional limits on lawsuits against nursing homes and that the changes in 2001 should be given more time to work.

Bentley Lipscomb of the Florida State Office of the AARP said Monday that he agreed that nursing homes were still having trouble getting insurance. But he said the answer was not giving nursing homes more protections from lawsuits.

"The liability insurance problem is a separate problem," Lipscomb said. "If they (the nursing home industry) get what they want, you won't be able to sue."

Carlton said Monday that the work of the select committee would be more than just recommending whether there should be additional limits on lawsuits. She said the committee's goal is to make sure that nursing homes are able to take care of the state's aging population.

"I think there could be nothing more important than ensuring the safety and security and care of our elderly in nursing homes," Carlton said. Carlton, who has a law degree but is not a practicing attorney, said looking at lawsuit limitations will be part of the committee's work, but she suggested that there are other issues, such as how the state can establish nursing specialists who deal in geriatric care.

The appointment of Carlton to a select committee on such a hot-button issue as nursing homes shows that the senator has been able to make inroads with the new Senate leaders. Carlton rose to prominence under former Senate President John McKay, R, Bradenton, whom she once worked for as an aide. She backed Sen. Dan Webster, R-Osceola, over King for president, but it appears she may wind up with at least one other prominent assignment for the next two years. King is expected to name his committee chairmen today, and Carlton is in the running to be the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on education.That subcommittee is responsible for doling out dollars to school districts, colleges and universities.

NURSING HOMES:
Advocates want more restrictions to be passed

Nursing homes AT A GLANCE

• During the 2001 session, lawmakers passed a sweeping bill that required nursing homes to beef up their staffing and increase the amount of time they spend on patients.

TALLAHASSEE - Negligence lawsuits against nursing homes have plummeted in the past year, but the state's legislative leaders see ``a continuing crisis'' and want to make it even tougher to sue. 
An unusual joint House and Senate committee will investigate ways to help nursing homes obtain insurance: the same goal of a bruising legislative battle in 2001. 

That war between nursing home and trial lawyer lobbyists ended with homes forced to add staff in exchange for limits on lawsuit payments. 

Nursing homes blamed lawyers for suing so frequently that insurers were afraid to offer coverage. 

Statistics show lawsuits have dropped by more than 80 percent since the law was enacted. 

But Senate President Jim King, R- Jacksonville, said the 2001 law ``has not attracted insurance companies back.'' 

In 2001, all of the battling interests agreed it would take three or four years before insurers would feel more confident in offering insurance to Florida's nursing homes. 

King said the state can't wait to see if that happens. 

``Even though there are some who say we haven't given the previously passed legislation a chance to prove itself, we must do something to help bring this issue to fruition in a more timely manner,'' King said. 

Left off the committee is the lawmaker best known for battling the state's for-profit nursing homes: Sen. Nancy Argenziano, R-Dunnellon. 

Argenziano won national recognition in 2001 when she sent a box of manure to a nursing home lobbyist in the Capitol. 

With pro-business Republicans holding sway in the Legislature, Argenziano said nursing homes likely will win stricter limits on how much they have to pay in negligence cases. 

She also said nursing homes likely will try to weaken laws mandating staff levels. 

``I don't think there will be any ratcheting up of manpower,'' she said. ``I think it'll be chipped away.'' 

Ed Towey, a spokesman for the state's nursing home trade group, the Florida Health Care Association, said nursing homes want to avoid cutting staff levels. But he said it will be tough to pay for more employees unless insurance is more affordable. 

``It continues to be a crisis. It never improved,'' he said. 

Tampa lawyer Jim Wilkes, a national litigator against nursing homes, ripped any efforts to further restrict lawsuits against negligent facilities. 

``Lawsuits are down - way down - and we are six months from the most optimistic projection of when insurers would return,'' Wilkes said. ``What more could the nursing home lobbyists possibly want?''