Nursing homes are increasingly seeking to shield themselves from a raft of wrongful death lawsuits from the families of Covid-19 victims by invoking new liability protections they received from Washington last year as the coronavirus tore through the facilities.
About 200 lawsuitsin nearly half the stateshave already been filed, and the industry says it’s bracing for many more in the coming months given the virus’ outsize toll on residents and staff. But an emergency preparedness law expanded by Congress last year limiting health providers’ exposure to coronavirus-related lawsuits — and the Trump administration’s broad interpretation of those protections — are upending litigation against nursing homes.
The powerful nursing home lobbies, which spent at least $4 million lobbying Washington last year, were among the health groups that successfully urged Congress and statehouses last spring to grant expanded protections, arguing that they faced shortages of personal protective equipment and shifting guidance from the federal government on battling the virus. Patient advocates contend that some nursing homes were negligent in their handling of the virus, pointing to the industry’s documented history of problems with infection control.
Even before the pandemic, nursing homes already benefited from strong legal protections. Advocates for residents of the facilities, who argue that Congress didn’t mean to provide such sweeping immunity, worry that efforts to hold nursing homes accountable for what they argue were preventable Covid deaths will be virtually impossible if courts take a broad view of the new protections.
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