News Tagged ‘Sen. Herb Kohl’

Grassley, Kohl reintroduce legislation to improve care at nursing homes

bill 150x150Two senators have reintroduced legislation aimed at improving the quality of care in .  The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act,  reintroduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI), would give consumers more information about the quality of care at , provide the government with better tools to enforce high quality standards, and encourage to improve on the care they provide, according to Trading Markets.

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Senate to consider Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention bill

This week, members of the U.S. Senate will consider a bill that will establish a nationwide system of background checks for individuals who apply for jobs at long-term care facilities, The Daily Times (Farmington, New Mexico) reported today. If passed, the Patient Safety and Prevention Act would allow to choose not to hire potentially abusive caregivers based on a coordinated system of checks against and registries, state police records and the FBI national database of criminal history records.

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U.S. Senate debates arbitration

A joint meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition and Consumer Rights and U.S. Senate Aging Committee was held this morning to discuss S. 2838, The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act, sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Aging Committee, and Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. The bill’s sponsors argued that more facilities are requiring patients and their families to sign mandatory arbitration agreements, signing away their right to sue in the event of or , which they said is unfair.

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Alabama Among Worst

A review of the nation’s nursing home inspection reports by the Congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) lists Alabama among nine states with the worst records of inspection accuracy, saying inspectors missed serious problems in more than 25 percent of all inspections from 2002-2007. The report said most states still fared dismally, missing at least one serious deficiency in 15 percent of all inspections.

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