A possible rule change coming to your local nursing home: no more lawsuits, just third party arbitration when your relatives are mistreated or abused

Senate Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to abandon its proposal to strip nursing home residents and their families of their right to settle disputes with facilities in court.

In a letter Monday, Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) urged Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), to reconsider her proposal to reverse an Obama-era rule that prohibited nursing homes that accept Medicare or Medicaid funds from including language in their resident contracts requiring disputes be settled by a third party, rather than in a court.

The senators argue that these clauses, known to lawyers as pre-dispute arbitration agreements, “stack the deck against residents and their families” and prohibit them from suing over alleged physical abuse and neglect, sexual assault, or wrongful death.