Tennessee nursing homes pushing for lawsuit limits.

[Source: Health and Life Sciences Law Daily, April 7, 2008 - AHLA]

The Tennessean (4/6, Emery) reported that "the nursing home industry as a whole is fighting to impose new limits" on lawsuits related to negligence. In Tennessee, the Nursing Home Patient Protection Act of 2008, a bill "under discussion in the state Legislature," would "keep many lawsuits out of courts altogether, make the cases more difficult to pursue, and cap damages." Proponents of the measure "suggest that nursing homes are drowning under a flood of litigation from out-of-state lawyers, while critics accuse the industry of cutting off the only recourse for victims of negligence and greed." Gerald Coggin, a senior vice president for National HealthCare Corp., "said that while other states have put limitations on lawsuits, out-of-state law firms have migrated to Tennessee in search of clients, creating a 'huge increase' in lawsuits." Coggin added, "It's driven up the cost of defending and litigating these lawsuits, and taken away (money) that ought to be going into patient care."