Nursing home employees should seek liability insurance coverage

While we can debate the ‘fairness’ in the lack of mandatory liability insurance for nursing homes when it comes to residents, I want to focus on a second—and usually forgotten—group: nursing home employees.

As agents of a nursing home or hospital, nurses, CNAs, administrators, and physicians have generally been able to sleep well at night, even if they were accused of negligence and a lawsuit was brought against them. Their employers almost universally defended the lawsuit and, if needed, paid a settlement or judgment.

Today, however, this situation is becoming less common. Increasingly, nursing home employees are being named personally in nursing home lawsuits—especially in situations where a facility has no coverage or is likely uninsured. This means that nursing home workers are becoming personally exposed with respect to being named as a defendant in a lawsuit. That’s right—the nursing home worker could be responsible for paying for a legal defense and for paying any judgment or settlement.

This new era litigation should not be passed off as a new guerrilla tactic employed by plaintiff’s lawyers. To the contrary, most plaintiff’s lawyers would much rather pursue a cause of action against a large company as opposed to an individual—jurors are more likely to hand down larger verdicts if they know a corporate entity is paying for it. In most cases this is done due to a complete lack of other options for an injured party to recover.

The real blame for this situation falls squarely on the shoulders of the individuals and corporations who make a conscious decision to forgo or minimally insure their facilities. In terms of liability insurance coverage, some facilities are electing to completely forgo such insurance or obtain such negligible coverage that it provides mostly for the ‘cost of defense’—to pay lawyers to defend them.

Employees should become familiar with insurance coverage

If you work in a nursing home or long-term care facility, it’s time for you to get acquainted with the insurance procedures at your facility. Without sounding overly alarming (and I know I already have), your failure to learn some of the insurance lingo could jeopardize both your professional career and personal finances.

Before purchasing an individual policy, keep in mind the following:

• Does the policy pay for both costs of legal defense and a settlement or judgment?
• Would the policy pay for claims made against you by your employer—if they were to sue you for a contribution claim?
• Does the policy cover you if you change jobs?
• Will the policy reimburse you for time spent at a trial or deposition?

Jonathan Rosenfeld is a lawyer who represents people injured in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Visit his personal blog at www.nursinghomesabuseblog.com.