Across America, consumer advocates and elder care attorneys are sounding alarms about nursing homes attempting to collect unpaid debts from third parties by sending them to debt collection or to law firms for legal action. Friends and relatives have found themselves facing potentially financially devastating lawsuits simply because they signed admission paperwork.
“These cases have been ongoing for a number of years. Unfortunately, though, what we have seen is that nursing homes have gotten more and more aggressive in recent years, particularly as Medicaid cuts have made it more difficult for people to get coverage for their care and nursing homes, but also as nursing home care is just getting more and more expensive,” she said.
The CFPB was examining these debt collection practices until the new administration arrived in January. The agency has since faced the firing of its director, staff cuts and new directives that place little to no emphasis on enforcement.
CMS, which oversees nursing homes, also was poised to take a more aggressive stance by sending guidance to nursing homes of their obligation to follow federal law, but that guidance was pulled from consideration in February, Anderson said.
“I think that what’s happening is that nursing homes are just getting away with this,” she said. “I think that they have filed these lawsuits, and most of these lawsuits don’t actually ever get in front of a judge. They just end up with an automatic default judgment in favor of the nursing home, or the family agrees to settle the case before it ever gets to a judge.”
The NCLC and Justice in Aging surveyed advocates for older Americans across the country. More than half of those advocates from 27 states told the researchers that they had recently seen lawsuits against third parties with some reporting that they had seen as many as 20 cases in their areas.
