Nursing homes part-owned by state legislator have been cited

The State REQUIRES my business to have Workers Comp insurance, and to pay for Unemployment Insurance. What if I can't afford it? Rep. Cox gives this reason as justification for not REQUIRING liability insurance for nursing homes.

And while we're at it, my business sure can't afford county real estate and personal property taxes. Over $15,000 last year for my small business.

Somehow we make a go of it, and I imagine the nursing homes could too if required to carry liability insurance.

Wonder how many times he has visited his nursing homes to see how they are operating? Just easy money for him and his partner. They couldn't care less about how the residents are being taken care of.

Whatever happened to conflict of interest?

From 4/04 to 9/04 my mother was in 2 TWO nursing homes.
The first requested that I move her and while I was looking for
another home - she 'conveniently' fell & broke her hip. She spent 5 wks in the hospital - recovered nicely from all except the Alzheimers. The 2nd home knew she was recovering from the 1st broken hip and all went well for approx. 1-1/2 months.
Then while they weren't paying attention (she was in a wheelchair) she was able to get the lap-buddy off and tried to get up. Again, a fall (on Saturday) but they didn't notice that she appeared to be in pain until MONDAY - a 2nd broken hip...and when returned from the hospital - was kept so medicated that she couldn't even answer yes or no, I found a dining area person had fed her dinner as she had just been left to feed (or rather not eat) on her own. When I pursued legal action against the nursing homes - I find they supposedly have no insurance or assets. In addition, since social security & medicare were paying her medical bills and nursing home care... they want any $$$ that might be received from the legal actions.
Considering that most charge 3,000.00 a month (+) per patient, it doesn't sound to me like they 'can't afford' insurance! It only sounds like they want to put it all in their pockets. As a matter of information, I did find a PRIVATELY OWNED nursing home - owned by a FAMILY where my mother spent her last months of life and was given EXCELLENT care...and the employees there truly cared!

Liability insurance is available to PROTECT the assets of the nursing home AND its owners' personal assets. It is a legitimate business expense, a large portion of which I suspect is deductible.

Many seem to overlook the "deficiencies" for which these 2 nursing homes were cited: failing to have a registered nurse on staff; giving residents the wrong medication, and employees without name tags.

A registered nurse is required on each shift ... CNAs, generally, have viewed a 2-hour video to become a "CNA" - they haven't the education to make life-or-death decisions in an emergency or to dispense medications. Giving a resident the wrong medication? Hey, such an error could KILL someone! An employee not wearing an ID tag? How else would one KNOW an employee from someone simply hanging around?

Unfortunately, long-term care is costly ... there is no justification. The employees are not adequately compensated and rarely are entitled to benefits such as health care or retirement pension. A majority of the nursing homes in Oklahoma are owned by a small group of people - more often than not, businesses passed from one generation to the next. And, yes, if Medicare/Medicaid are paying the cost of hospitalization for substandard care and/or an accident, each entity has a right to reimbursement ON BEHALF OF THE TAXPAYER of a proportionate share of any settlement proceeds - each must accept a proportionate share of the litigation costs in obtaining the settlement. Absent liability insurance, WE, THE TAXPAYER, are wholly responsible for the long-term care of our elderly! All the while, the nursing home, its operator/owner, its shareholders, etc. reap the benefits of the monies received by Medicare/Medicaid each month. AND, think about this ... while a resident is hospitalized for an illness or injury as a result of substandard care or negligence ... Medicare/Medicaid CONTINUES TO PAY FOR THE ROOM - in addition to the medical costs - to ensure the resident has a "home" to go to upon discharge!

IF the owner/operator of a nursing home OPTS not to maintain liability insurance, he/she should 1) be required to post a notice informing residents, residents' families, and potential residents that liability insurance is NOT available, in other words - "stay at your own risk"; 2) prohibited from accepting residents entitled to Medicare/Medicaid.

We are required to maintain liability auto insurance ... regardless of the cost. And, guess what? THAT insurance is not a legitimate deduction from YOUR taxable income!

The average cost of a nursing home bed is more than $76,000 annually. Scrambled eggs and hot dogs are served for dinner. Go find this Cox guy's personal home and see how he lives. The Nursing Home Industry takes people's homes, assets, life savings and then taps into Medicare and Medicaid. It is laughable and corrupt that this owner/operator is crying over $250,000 in liability insurance. All the while he is making laws.

I have been a CNA/CMA for 10 years now. You would not believe some of the things I have seen happen in nursings homes. It would absolutely make you sick. The first nursing home I worked in also had no RN on duty from 11pm to 7am so the CMA was technically the supervisor and everyone else seemed to think this was OK. The last nursing home I worked in there were ventilator patients that some of the CNAs did not even check on until the last rounds of their shift. When something was said to the DON/Administrator they asked the aide in question and of course she denied it so the DON just let it drop. When I brought it to the owners attention I was relieved of my duties. Please PLease Please thoroughly check out the nursing home you are going to put your loved one in. They have to show you their inspections from the years past by state law.

If anything sounds like a complete huge conflict of interest, it's Rep. Doug Cox not abstaining from the vote on this matter. Clearly his profitable position makes him biased. The fact that his colleagues didnt make a motion for him to abstain is clearly an indication there is collusion in the corruption!

My daddy said if you lay down with dogs you will get fleas.

Perhaps Mr. Cox cant bring himself to be honest but his colleagues dont need to jump in his canoe.

This was an unfair attack by a trial lawyer front group on one of Oklahoma's finest legislators. When can we get past the politics of personal destruction?

Dr Cox is only a minority shareholder (25%) of the homes in question and doesn't personally operate the homes. As a minority shareholder he can't control the homes any more than you could control Walmart if you owned its stock.

The deficiencies were all relatively minor. Scoped at E or less on a scale from A to L. No fines or penalties.

From the article those homes received 14 and 12 deficiencies, per Medicare website the average for Oklahoma is 12.
They can write deficiencies on roughly 200 separate F tags, so those homes got 93% of things right. That's still an A grade.

That bill deals with only professional liability insurance. NH's still have to carry worker's comp, unemployment ins, vehicle insurance, general liability insurance, property insurance, fidelity bonds, and etc.
Dr Cox should be applauded for doing his part to insure availability of nursing home beds in rural Oklahoma. And for stopping the urban lawyers from setting up their own personal annuity on the backs of Oklahoma's elderly and disabled.
Since the lawyers bankrupted Hospital Casualty Company, roughly 65% of the homes in the state have become self insured.
Many, many businesses choose to be self insured for some liability risks. Including most Fortune 500 companies.

Oklahoma Center for Consumer and Patient Safety is a trial lawyer front group. Its founder, Hugh Robert is an attorney or suer (pronounced sewer) who works for Ted Sherwood and Associates, a firm that trolls for nursing home cases (okconsumeradvocateDOTcom) . Its principal, Ted Sherwood actually conducts courses for other attorneys on how to sue nursing homes. Here is Hugh's resume (works.bepressDOTcom/hugh_robert/cv.pdf).

Hugh Robert and Ted Sherwood are fraternity brothers and seem rather close. Robert gushes over Sherwood in an article at (epsilonmuDOTorg/newsletters/06-07/November06.pdf). Additionally, Hugh Robert is an officer of the Oklahoma Bar Association “Oklahoma Law Student Division”.

As a trial lawyer front group for Ted Sherwood and possibly others, OCCPS has no credibility in this issue and should not have their press releases or planted articles reprinted in the paper, as if they were news.

Putting Dr. Cox in charge of the Public Health Committee is like putting Colonel Sanders in charge of protecting chickens!

I was paralyzed from my shoulders down to my feet by a rapid acting neuropathy, Guillain Barre Syndrome, back in November of 2004 when I was 39 years old. I was in two different nursing homes, here in Tulsa, until September of 2005. I recovered enough to go home with a home healthcare agency's services. Today I've recovered a great deal but still deal with muscle weakness and fatigue.

Since I was nearly completely paralyzed, I could move my neck and talk, and couldn't do anything for myself, there was lots of opportunities for just plain neglect. I was as helpless as a baby infant, only, I could talk and was smarter than a baby. I hope. I noticed while I was trying to get something done for me and my care the nursing home staff was trying to do as little as possible for me. It was common knowledge the nursing home owners were trying to save money by cutting corners. Therefore the nursing home wasn't ran properly. Doug Cox is thinking of the nursing home not the resident in this article. My brother, who was a newly licensed R.N. in another state, spoke with the Director of Nursing, where I was a resident, in conversation and said there ought to be a doctor on site in the nursing home 24 hours a day at all times. His naive statement was almost laughable if it weren't so true and pathetic. Maybe in an ideal world with better nursing homes.

I have come to the conclusion there aren't any good nursing homes. Maybe some aren't as bad as others. Take your pick. And those annual reviews need to be monthly or weekly reviews. A lot of abuse and neglect can happen in a year. Maybe it would cut down on all the evil and ignorant deeds. A snapshot of what happens from year to year doesn't give you the whole picture.

Thanks Hillary.