Kansas Legislature grants nursing homes immunity from COVID-19 related lawsuits
A bill that grants nursing homes immunity from most COVID-19 related lawsuits is headed to Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk Thursday after approval by the Kansas Senate in a 30-7 vote.
The bill passed the House along party lines by an 85-37 margin earlier this month.
In Kansas, more than a thousand coronavirus deaths have been linked to nursing homes, where the virus has caused massive outbreaks.
The bill will give nursing homes, community mental health centers and disability organizations immunity unless a court finds a resident contracted the virus because of gross negligence by the staff.
It is the legislature’s latest pass at immunity for nursing homes. Last year, Kelly vetoed revisions to the emergency management act that included liability protections. Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican, said Kelly then “cornered” lawmakers into leaving similar protections out during a special session over the summer.
In a debate Wednesday evening, proponents of the bill argued that nursing homes were not given proper guidance and resources from state agencies at the onset of the pandemic.
“That we as a state didn’t provide those things but we’re also not going to provide them immunity is an untenable situation for adult care homes,” said Sen. Kellie Warren, a Leawood Republican.
Warren said without immunity nursing homes would be put out of business by the need to defend against lawsuits. The measure would not protect true bad actors from legal action, she said.
“Those who oppose it see these adult care homes as deep pockets to bring these kinds of claims,” Warren said. “If you’re willfully, wrongly or grossly negligent of course you should be able to pursue those claims.”
But opponents said the bill failed to hold nursing homes to high standards.
“I’d be devastated if (my parents) had a tragic death inside one of these facilities,” said Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat. “It would be very hard for me to go in there and prove whether there was gross negligence or not.”
Rep Stephen Owens, a Hesston Republican, and five other Republican lawmakers sponsored the bill after nursing homes were excluded from immunities granted to certain healthcare providers in the Emergency Management Act passed last June. At the time, GOP leaders worried that including nursing home immunity in the bill, which also limited the governor’s executive authority, would lead to a veto.
“I wanted to make sure that our nursing homes, our elder care facilities knew that they were going to be taken care of as well,” said state Rep. Stephen Owens, R-Hesston, who first introduced the bill to the House in January. “It was very much a priority for me.”
Many nursing home facilities testified in favor of the bill earlier this year, but others said it was overbroad and could take away the right to a jury trial for those who lost loved ones during outbreaks in a nursing home.
