Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says our population is aging, which is why he wants to do what he can to better protect Virginia's senior citizens.
Right now, the Attorney General's Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Elderly Abuse Unit consists of 70 people: nurses, ex-federal agents, auditors and others. They do undercover work as well as forensic analysis.
But you might be surprised to learn that it is limited in its power to investigate nursing homes under state law.
Ken Cuccinelli says his legislative proposal would fix that.
He says right now, investigators can only get the records of Medicare and Medicaid patients in nursing homes who are suspected of being abused because there are state and federal dollars involved.
If you don't have Medicare or Medicaid, the Attorney General's office can't help, and can't investigate possible abuse because it's against state law.
Cuccinelli's legislative proposal would allow his unit to subpoena *all* the records from the nursing home facility being investigated. One reason could be to see if there is a pattern of abuse or neglect that is systemic to the facility (ie. management, etc.), and not just isolated to maybe one staffer taking care of that one Medicaid patient who was reported to the Attorney General's office.
"There's this gaping hole in terms of getting these medical records which are key to figuring out in abuse and neglect cases what's going on. We need nurses and investigators to look at the information. What we're seeking during this session is the ability to use subpoena power where we believe elder abuse might be taking place, so we can further analyze those records", says Cuccinelli.
Cuccinelli says his proposal is being sponsored by House Delegate Chris Peace (R-Hanover), and State Senator Ralph Smith (R-22nd).
Source:
Attorney General Proposes Bill to Prevent Elderly Abuse
2 comments:
You need to look at guardianship abuse too, Mr. AG.
Guardianship abuse is elder abuse at its worse!
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