CMS is currently considering whether or not to ban pre-dispute arbitration documents from nursing home admission contracts. The patient or their family members must sign home admission contracts before they can be admitted, and these contracts are often lengthy and complex. Unfortunately, sometimes these contracts contain a pre-dispute arbitration document, and if the patient signs off on that contract, they will be unable to take a case to court if something terrible happens.

Instead, this document means that they will have to go to private closed-door arbitrations, where families generally have to pay arbitrators large sums of money, and arbitrators are not obligated to follow any of the typical laws and rules of the court.

A recent McKnight’s Long-Term Care News article describes one case in which a nursing home resident died, and an autopsy revealed that she had over 20 times the proper amount of diabetes medication in her blood. After the family was forced into arbitration, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the facility.

A recent article by The New York Times also chronicles how arbitration has been used and abused by businesses and nursing homes to shirk any responsibility to their patients, employees or customers.

If you think inserting pre-dispute arbitration documents into admissions contracts are a bad idea, you’re not alone. 34 U.S. Senators and 15 attorney generals signed a letter banning the practice in nursing homes.

Write your congressperson and ask them to tell CMS to get rid of these unjust documents. Hopefully, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will end this abusive practice soon.