Clark Howard's Tips

Protect your parents from nursing home abuses

Sept. 4, 2008

Clark recently discussed how he was furious over kangaroo court arbitrations in the corporate world. Many banks force customers into these joke arbitrations that are worthy of a banana republic. Of course, the financial institutions routinely select arbitrators that rule in their favor.

Days after his initial comments, The Wall Street Journal did a story about nursing homes that harm or kill people through negligence. Surviving family members have no recourse because they signed mandatory arbitration clauses when they were admitting their loved ones. It's getting to the point that nursing homes have no incentive to not kill people; there's nothing families can do after the fact.

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The Wall Street Journal is not exactly a bleeding heart liberal publication, but they're very angry over this. So what can you do to protect yourself before you put a loved one in a nursing home? They suggest you carefully vet the admission contract and see if you can opt out of the mandatory arbitration clause. If you can't avoid it, try writing the following next to the clause: "I'm signing this because I was told that I have to." That creates the possibility that you can potentially get out of mandatory arbitration in the event your loved one is harmed or killed while in their care. The thing with the banks was bad enough, but it's a whole different story if they kill your mama.

Last year, Clark told you that nursing homes were using multiple holding companies behind the scenes to limit their liability. There are a lot of things going on in this industry that are unacceptable in a decent society, according to Clark.

Interestingly, the demand for beds in nursing homes has been far lower than what demographers anticipated. That's because more families are choosing in-home care options for their elders. You need to feel confident about who's caring for your senior loved ones.

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