What is happening inside of some of America's and the world's nursing homes and rehab centers? If anyone from any legal establishment or if any lawyers, paralegals or anyone specialiizing in contracts area of law could look inside of the workings of almost any nursing homes and rehab centers, they might be shocked, dismayed, disappointed and probably just stunned at what is happening to seniors, disabled, handicapped, incapacitated, and other human beings who are brought into these facilities on stretchers, by ambulances, by ambulettes and other means.
Just recently, there were some patients from hospitals that were transferred to nursing homes by ambulette and by ambulance. When they arrived there at the nursing homes and rehab care centers, they were obviously in some kind of health-problem conditions, ranging from anywhere from minor health and needing rehab to more major health problems and needing rehab, and in other conditions. And what happened to them when they arrived at their destinations, where these facilities were supposed to be caring for them and were supposed to help them rehab, and supposed to look out for them? Everyone was treated differently in some respects, but there were some who were treated to lengthy, burdomsome thirty to forty-page documents, way to long to read, to consider, to understand or to digest. And they were made to sign three or four pages of those documents without being able to or given time to or given access to those pages to read, to understand or to fully see. Basically, they were blindly sigining legal documents without really having seen the documents. In any country this is wrong, but at the least it has to be illegal. For as long back as I can remember, in order for a contract to be valid, that contract must be seen, read, and agreed to by the parties signing the document. And for the most part, no one should be legally held to any documents when they were asked to sign them yet did not have the documents to read and understand and agree to, yet that happens in some nursing homes and rehab centers all over this country and all over the world. And it appears to keep happening and it is not front page news because outsiders do not know it is happening.
How can anyone sign a contract if they have no clue what that contract signs and how can that contract be valid? Recently, a nursing home resident, a new resident, was treated to one of these legalese-packed documents. They never saw the entire document. And the funny part is that no one at the facility showed the lengthy document to anyone at all even though family member was present at the nursing home for a long period of time during and after the admissions process. The family member was there and present and able to read, yet was never offered any papers to read. The facility waited, yes, waited, until the patient was alone in the facility, in order to approach the patient and at that time when he was alone, and without his glasses, then he was approached and asked to sign pages that he did not see and did not read and did not fully understand. He did not know that he was apparently signing away many of his rights to privacy, and many of his rights to his own finances and to his own income, disability and pension funds, and things in the future. He did not know that he was signing a document that seemingly gives so much power to the facility that it left him with hardly any rights,and hardly any income at all. Although at that moment, the document and the processes were not in force, and though at that moment the facility had not acted on this document, the document still was a very powerful document that fully gave the facility all the rights and took away most of the rights of the resident or patient. AND, all of this was done, not while family members were present and done only when the resident /patient was alone and unable to confer with family and unable to ask any questions about the document and unable to have the document fully explained to him. Yes, the patient is fully competent, but still any fully competent person is legally entitled to read and fully understand what he is reading if he is going to put his signature on a document. I feel that the deceitful part or one of the deceitful parts of this happening was that the facility waited until the patient was alone, and yet did not even tell the famly that they were going to ask the resident to sign a thirty to forty page contract. Anyone would have asked to see the contract, to understand it and most people would confer with their legal advisors and with their families when signing such a contract that was giving away practically all their privacy, financial, social and medical rights with one full swoop of the pen. But yet, this facility, preferred to hand this document over to the patient himself, and insisted that he sign it. They passed off this legal contract, document as an admissions or enrollement document but neglected to tell the patient that he was signing a paper that would give the facility so many rights and that would leave him with practically no rights and practically no money and practically no income.
And, yes, and, this seemingly happens a lot in nursing homes and in rehab centers all over America and throughout the world. Facilities get away with this because patients are signing these documents alone and they are not understanding what they are signing. And think about it. If someone handed you a document or contract that took away your rights and your finances and your privacy would you sign such a document knowing that it contained those clauses in there? Probably not, correct? I would not sign it. And the patient would not agree to sign it. But only if the document was cloaked under the title of a routine admissions or enrollment document, some might possibly sign it. Only when cloaked under a -- you need to sign this in order to be admitted here, it' is all routine, you do not need to read it all -- type of statement, only then, some tired, just transferred from hospitals, seniors or disabled individuals might think that they need to sign it, but even then they still have no clue what they are signing because they are not offered the liberty to read the document before signing it.
Here is how the facility gets away with this. They make the document so lengthy and so packed with pages and information that no one has any opportunity to read it all. Then they put about four or five pages , with lots of blanks in front of the patient, and they tell the patient that it is all routine, and that it is just for enrollment processes, but they do not tell the patient that these pages are taking away most of the patients rights, and rights to finances, pensions, disability checks and do not tell the patient that they are applying for medicaid, medicare and other government services for the patient -- even though the patient has private insurance that fully covers their temporary stay at the facility.
What common sense does that make? None! It makes no sense that someone applying for a temporary stay for temporary short-term rehabilitation should need to apply for medicaid or medicare when they have private insurance, and they are covered by that private insurance. Yet, to some facilities, they think it makes sense because the document protects the facility and gives the facility all the rights that it takes away from the new, temporary resident.
And who permits this to happen? Your guess is as good as mine. Have you read your fifty-page routine enrollment agreement? Probably not. Most likely you were not given time, permission or oportunity to read such lengthy agreements.
So, how do you protect yourself from having this happen to you when you are being admitted to a facility for short-term rehab with private insurance? There are many ways that you might begin to protect yourself. But even when you follow those ways, you still might be unprotected, like the man in this article was. He and his family actually made it known to medical and other personnel at the facility that he does not sign any papers without his family member present to witness the signing and to make sure that he has all the information he needs before signing. The facility was quite aware that family members needed to be present before this man signed anything, yet they still put this lengthy, clause-packed document in front of him AFTER his family left the place. They actually waited until his family left the place before they made him sign the agreement. This was wrong, yet it happened. It smacks of being illegal, yet it happened. So how does this keep happening in America and all over the world?
Protect yourself and protect your family; protect patients, residents and families before and after and while they are in nursing homes and in rehab and care centers. These are some helpful ways that you might want to protect yourself if you are a resident in any of these facilities and if you are family members of residents:
Make it known that you, the patient or resident, does not and will not sign any documents, papers or forms, even if they are routine, without your family member present to witness the signing, and to help assure that you have fully read any documents, contracts or agreements that they want you to sign.
If you are a family member, remind the staff that the patient and resident signs only in the presence of family members, and never signs contracts or documents, even when routine if no family member is present to witness the signing.
If you see that the facility has gone against the wishes of the patient or resident, put your wishes in writing immediatly as soon as possible.
Do this in all facilities such as nursing homes, hospitals, emergency rooms, medical centers, and rehabiiltation and care centers.
When and if a patient or resident has been convinced, coerced, talked into or demanded to sign documents without family members present, correct this, put the correction in writing and if need be, make official complaints.
Come here and post your comments and add your suggestions as soon as possible. Post your own articles and your own books and booklets regarding the subject so that the public can be aware that this is happening in these facilities.
Consult a legal agency or lawyer whenever possible to protect yourself and to protect your family and patients and residents of these facilities.
There are ways to protect yourself and protect your assets. One of the best ways is to have a lawyer or get a lawyer or be a lawyer. So contact someone in a legal firm today if you feel that something is wrong with the contract, admissions procedure in any facility that you are dealing with.
Do only what is safe and legal for you to do. Ask for advice from professionals that are not connected to or related to the facility. Make sure the advice that you receive is not related to the place. Anyone connected to or related to the place will want to protect the facility rather than protect the residents' or patients' rights.
Read, read read and stay connected with other patients and with other families. Remember that unions work, connections work and passing the word around works. If you have had something bad happen to you inside a facility, pass the word around and make sure that others know what is happening inside those places. If you keep it a secret, most likely that secret will haunt your family for generations. Remember that nursing home or medical center might be the same place that your children, grand-children and great-grandchildren might go to in the future, so by improving conditions in there now, you are making an investment in your own family's future.
Read more articles about the subject and stay informed. From all appearances, it seems as if this is a project for the American Civil Liberties Union. Since this is about rights, and about patients and residents losing their rights by being asked to sign contracts that they are not permitted to read or understand, some government agency might do well in investigating the situation. And besides any government agencies investigating, the American Civil Liberties Union needs to step in and help protect the rights of patients, residents, handicapped, seniors and disabled individuals who might be entering nursing homes and rehabilitation and care centers. Someone needs to help. Are you an influential person or someone in a position of authority who can help seniors, disabled, patients and residents with their rights?
And, at the very least, kindly leave a comment, note, suggestion, idea or criticism of this article there. Thank you.
Melinda Thomas is an author who has read and studied psychology for many years. And has attended courses in one of the largest cities in America. She shares her ideas here, and shares her observations here in the hopes that you will share yours for the betterment of America and the world.
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