Public Citizen

Protect the Elderly from Forced Arbitration

The Arbitration Trap We trust nursing homes to make sure our loved ones are in a safe environment where they eat their meals on time, receive their prescribed medications, and have attentive care.

Sadly, many elderly residents are neglected.

Mary Hight was dehydrated and ill for days, but her nursing home wouldn’t call an ambulance. Her daughter had no choice but to push her in a wheelchair to a nearby hospital, where she died the next day. Adding insult to injury, Mary’s family couldn’t sue the nursing home and hold it accountable in court -- because it had put something called a “binding mandatory arbitration” clause in the fine print of its admission papers.

Instead of focusing on providing the best care to their residents, nursing homes are busy immunizing themselves from accountability for their wrongdoing -- by stripping the elderly of the right to take them to court! This practice must end.

Help stop these predatory practices!

The Senate Judiciary Committee will soon vote on a bill to ban nursing homes from shutting the elderly and their families out of court.

Every senator needs to support this legislation, but it is especially critical that senators who sit on the Judiciary Committee hear from their constituents NOW!

Please check this list of Senate Judiciary Committee members and personalize the letter to your senator below:

Patrick J. Leahy
CHAIRMAN, D-VERMONT

Edward M. Kennedy D-MASSACHUSETTS	Arlen Specter RANKING MEMBER, R-PENNSYLVANIA
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. D-DELAWARE	Orrin G. Hatch R-UTAH
Herb Kohl D-WISCONSIN	Charles E. Grassley R-IOWA
Dianne Feinstein D-CALIFORNIA	Jon Kyl R-ARIZONA
Russell D. Feingold D-WISCONSIN	Jeff Sessions R-ALABAMA
Charles E. Schumer D-NEW YORK	Lindsey Graham R-SOUTH CAROLINA
Richard J. Durbin D-ILLINOIS	John Cornyn R-TEXAS
Benjamin L. Cardin D-MARYLAND	Sam Brownback R-KANSAS
Sheldon Whitehouse D-RHODE ISLAND	Tom Coburn R-OKLAHOMA

September 28, 2016

Subject:

Dear Senator,

I am writing to urge you to support the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act, S. 2838, introduced by Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fl.).  This important legislation would eliminate pre-dispute binding mandatory arbitration (BMA) clauses in nursing home contracts.

Binding mandatory arbitration clauses have been showing up in credit card, employment, and insurance contracts, and now they are being used to take advantage of the elderly and their families – by blocking residents from taking nursing homes to court and holding them accountable for harmful practices.  BMA benefits nursing homes at the expense of the elderly because they use it as a means to evade accountability and limit their economic liability for any harm they cause.

There are several reasons why the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act needs to be passed.

First, most nursing-home residents and their families are unaware of arbitration clauses in admission documents. And they wouldn’t be permitted to negotiate the clauses even if they knew about them.

Second, the lack of any meaningful review of arbitration decisions creates a climate ripe for abuse. The arbitration process is secretive and the courts have little involvement. This bill would allow the courts to decide the enforceability of these binding mandatory arbitration clauses in contracts.

Third, arbitration companies are beholden to the nursing homes that hire them for repeat business, which creates a bias.  For example, public data published in Public Citizen’s report "The Arbitration Trap: How Credit Card Companies Ensnare Consumers" show that one California arbitrator decided 526 of 532 cases in favor of business -- a mere 1.14 percent for the ordinary consumer.

It's time to enact the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act and restore accountability for nursing homes that don’t take care of their residents.

Thank you for listening to a constituent.  I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

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