Since January 2020, more than 150,000 nursing home residents have lost their lives to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last two years, the risks of COVID-19 in nursing homes have received considerable national media attention, but the pandemic may have also led to other circumstances that put nursing home residents at risk. If you lost…

One of the most troubling decisions you may face in your lifetime is deciding whether or not a parent or senior relative should be placed in the care of a nursing home. In many cases, families do not have a choice as the health of their relatives depends upon a continuous cycle of care by…

Imagine that you are helpless in bed, relying on another’s care for survival. One day, as you are being fed or bathed or changed, your caregiver turns against you and forces you to perform sex acts on him or takes advantage of you while you are sleeping. Now, imagine that you are elderly and that…

On September 28,  2016, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) within Health and Human Services, controlling more than $1 trillion in Medicare and Medicaid funding, has moved to prevent nursing homes from forcing arbitration clauses into nursing home contracts. The agency’s decision, which is the most significant overhaul of its rules governing federal…