A Broward County nursing home has filed a lawsuit seeking to block Gov. Rick Scott‘s administration from cutting off Medicaid payments and carrying out a moratorium on patient admissions after the deaths of nine of the facility’s residents following Hurricane Irma.
Democratic candidates for governor are hitting Gov. Rick Scott and others hard in the wake of eight deaths in a South Florida nursing home that lost its air conditioning as Hurricane Irma hit the state. But Scott’s office defended the governor’s actions, saying the facility never reported “that conditions had become dangerous.”
A South Florida senator has filed the first bill in response to the deaths of eight nursing home residents this week after Hurricane Irma knocked out their air conditioning. Sen. Lauren Book, a Plantation Democrat, filed the measure (SB 284) on Friday afternoon. Among other things, it would require the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) “to determine compliance with standards for electricity and emergency power sources during the routine inspection of a licensed nursing home facility.”
After eight South Florida nursing home residents died when Hurricane Irma knocked out their power, Gov. Rick Scott announced on Thursday night he had directed state officials to block the facility from receiving any further Medicaid payments.
The Florida Health Care Association on Thursday called the deaths of eight South Florida nursing home residents who died after Hurricane Irma knocked out their power an “isolated incident” and “not representative of the larger long term care profession in Florida.” The association advocates for “long term care providers and the elderly they serve,” according to its website. “Florida’s long term care facilities and entire profession of caregivers join in expressing our deepest sorrow for the families of the residents…
Of all the heartbreak and damage wrought by Hurricane Irma, nothing is worse than the deaths of eight elderly residents, aged 71 to 99, at a Hollywood Hills rehabilitation center. It’s an outrage. It’s horrifying. It left people sputtering with anger and officials on the trail to find answers.
The group that calls itself the conservative alternative to AARP is calling on the federal government to investigate the deaths of eight South Florida nursing home residents who died after Hurricane Irma knocked out their power. Dan Weber, founder and CEO of the Association of Mature American Citizens, sent a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long asking the agency “to offer any and all assistance in the (state) investigations and, if necessary, conduct an investigation of its own,” according to…