Nursing Home Evictions

Hello, I’m Eddie Farah, and you’re watching The Legal View. The number of people that need to go into nursing homes is growing. Each nursing home has a limited number of beds, and to maximize their profit, nursing homes want to fill those beds with as many low-maintenance patients as possible. For many nursing homes, this profit-driven motivation is creating a disastrous problem in that patients are being evicted. Reports show that evictions are up 57% since the year 2000. Nursing homes defend these evictions by saying that more problematic patients are a risk to staff, to other patients, and to themselves.

However, lawyers who represent the families with loved ones who have been evicted report that far too many cases involve slow-pay patients, family members who complain a lot about patient care, or other issues that the nursing home simply doesn’t want to deal with.

Under the federal regulations, in order to be able to pursue an involuntary discharge from a nursing home, the following regulations must be met:

• The resident’s needs cannot be adequately met by the facility.

• The resident’s health has improved and the resident is no longer in need of the nursing home’s services.

• The safety of other individuals in the facility is affected by the resident.

• Or the health of other individuals in the facility would be in danger if the resident is allowed to remain in the facility.

• Or the resident has failed to pay or has refused to apply for Medicare or Medicaid.

If your loved one is being involuntarily discharged from a nursing home, make sure that the facility is compliant with these federal regulations. Under the involuntary discharge, the law provides a 10-day right to appeal. Also, any notice of eviction must be in writing or it lacks any kind of legal effect. The written notice must set forth the resident’s and the family’s rights.

If you need any information related to nursing home litigation, please feel free to contact Farah & Farah. Thank you.