We are pleased to announce that Attorney Rob Sachs of Shrager, Sachs, & Blanco has written an article titled, “Plaintiff’s Challenges to Pre-Suit, Binding Arbitrations in Nursing Homes,” which has been published by the Pennsylvania Association for Justice. In the article, he addresses two significant days for nursing home residents throughout the state of Pennsylvania, September 27 and 28.
On September 27th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers over $1 trillion of federal reserves, issued final rules that will disallow binding, pre-dispute arbitration clauses in nursing facilities that are federally funded. Unfortunately, the next day, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court stated that it is bound by the US Supreme Court precedent and upheld the arbitration clause that will force separate arbitrations of survival actions that are bound by arbitration clauses and wrongful death action trials.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stated, in the summary, that new final rules will edit the requirements that Long-Term facilities are required to meet in order to participate in Medicaid and Medicare programs. Although skilled nursing facilities are funded by Medicare, personal care homes are not Medicare funded.
In 2019, this rule will be introduced, so the elimination of pre-suit binding arbitration clauses in skilled nursing facilities may not be eliminated for a few more years.
To learn more about the case, read Sachs’ article here.
