Consumer Rights in Nursing Facility Admissions April 07, 2021

The “typical” nursing facility admission presents a host of problems for the older person seeking assistance. Often, the prospective resident is making a rushed decision, possibly after an unexpected hospitalization. The admission agreement may bind the resident to arbitration of future disputes, or attempt to make the resident’s adult children liable for the resident’s nursing facility bills. Or the nursing facility might refuse to accept the resident entirely, due to the resident’s care needs or Medicaid eligibility.

This session will explain how the federal law provides protections for consumers, but also how the law falls short in some instances. A discussion of admissions discrimination will include presentation of a recent study that develops evidence of payment-source and care-needs discrimination through analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.