The Louisiana Nursing Home Association is still trying to get the “Bob Dean Protection Act” added into another bill, after the original legislation failed. (Photo by Wesley Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
Lobbyists for the powerful Louisiana Nursing Home Association are quietly pressing lawmakers to insert controversial language that would shield their industry from lawsuit damages into unrelated legislation.
Over Wednesday and Thursday of last week, three prominent nursing home lobbyists and former House Speaker Jim Tucker, who runs a nursing home company, met with senators in the hallways outside the Senate chamber asking them to tack on language from a defunct bill into other bills.
Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, has refused to bring the nursing homes’ preferred bill, Senate Bill 454, up for a vote on the Senate floor since the legislation was criticized in the media and dubbed the “Bob Dean Protection Act.”
Now the nursing home lobbyists, who are not used to losing legislative battles, are searching for another measure to carry the language from McMath’s proposal, according to several legislators.
“We are disappointed to see nursing home companies make multiple attempts to shield themselves from responsibility and accountability regarding patient safety,” said Andrew Muhl, state director of advocacy for the Louisiana chapter of AARP, which advocates for senior citizens. AARP opposed the McMath proposal.
The Bob Dean nickname for McMath’s bill is a reference to the notorious former nursing home owner who sheltered more than 800 nursing home patients in an old pesticide warehouse after Hurricane Ida. The state health department concluded the warehouse’s conditions contributed to the death of patients. Dean now faces criminal charges and a massive civil lawsuit over the ordeal.
McMath’s legislation – or language like it inserted into another bill – would make it more difficult to sue nursing home companies and limit any financial awards that came out of a successful lawsuit. Had it been in place a few years ago, the bill could have potentially deterred the lawsuit brought by Dean’s warehouse victims, critics said.
During a hearing on McMath’s bill earlier this month, Troy Broussard, an attorney who works with the nursing home industry, said the legislation was necessary to head off a “systemic, aggressive, deliberate attack on the nursing home industry” by trial attorneys who have found a way around the state’s medical malpractice act that deters lawsuits and limits damages.
“Litigants and courts are not always following the law as it is written,” Broussard told lawmakers.
Wes Hattaway, with the Louisiana Nursing Home Association, said nursing homes will no longer have affordable insurance options in Louisiana if the lawsuits continue.
“Entities will be forced to operate without coverage,” Hattaway said during the hearing.
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Critics characterized the legislation differently, saying the bill was written broadly, and would protect not just nursing home parent companies, but also their law firms, accountants, janitors and other vendors from lawsuits over wrongful deaths and negligence.
Sen. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, suggested if a nursing home staff member ran over a patient with a golf cart, the patient would have a hard time suing over the incident if the bill passed.
Luneau, typically a champion for nursing homes, said Louisiana would offer nursing home owners more protection from lawsuits than any other state in the country.
“We would be a complete outlier in this. Nobody else does this,” Luneau said. “This would make our law completely different than anybody else’s.”
Lawsuits brought against several nursing homes by the New Orleans law firm Garcia & Artigliere appear to have inspired the legislation. Matthew Coman, one of the firm’s attorneys who works on nursing home litigation, appeared at the bill hearing to oppose the bill.
CommCare Corp. is among the Louisiana nursing home operators Coman has sued. Tucker, an influential former Republican House Speaker, has run CommCare since 2015 and is a constituent of McMath’s.
For years, Louisiana nursing homes have received some of the lowest ratings in the nation, but nursing home owners are among the most prolific campaign donors to governors and legislators in this state. For example, Dean gave former Gov. John Bel Edwards’ $42,500 in campaign contributions over the years.
The nursing home industry also very rarely fails in a legislative fight, which may be why they are still pursuing a way to get the language contained in McMath’s bill put into another proposal.
The nursing home industry tried to get the McMath language quietly inserted into more than one bill last week, but legislative staff told the lobbyists, in some cases, the maneuver would be illegal. The language they were trying to add did not resemble the original intent of the bill enough to pass muster, according to legislators.
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In one case, the nursing home industry attempted to add their lawsuit shield put into legislation that concerns emotional support animals. Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, was expected to add portions of the McMath bill into House Bill 407, the animal regulation bill by Rep. Joe Stagni, R-Kenner, according to lawmakers who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
That plan came to a halt, in part, because Luneau was handling the Stagni legislation before the Senate and objected to the amendment, Luneau said.
Pressly declined to comment last week when asked about the plan.
The Louisiana Nursing Home Association’s three full-time lobbyists – Hattaway, Mark Berger and Lemmie Walker – also refused to talk to an Illuminator reporter when approached in person last week at the Capitol. Additionally, the association did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls sent to its office requesting an interview.
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