Editorial: Don't Force Iowa Families to Sign Away Their Rights

Most of the Iowans living in nursing homes and assisted living centers aren't in any position to advocate for themselves. They don't file complaints with state inspectors. They don't call newspaper reporters when they can't get help with a problem. They are too sick.

It's their adult children - if they have them - who try to right any wrongs. Since the Register's Opinion staff started the Aging in Iowa series last year, adult children have contacted us a few times a month concerning problems with a parent's care.

Wes Stevens called recently. His mother, Polly, is an 84-year-old Iowan who had been living at Emeritus at Urbandale, an assisted living center, for more than a year. She was in the dementia unit and needed around-the-clock care. (See the essay, at left, about her family.)

This family's experience illustrates a problem Iowa lawmakers should address: a two-page form Polly's daughter, Deb Pickering, signed when she admitted her mother to the home. It is titled, "Agreement to resolve disputes by binding arbitration."

Wes and Deb considered it just another one of many documents they were asked to sign. Twenty months later, after their mother fell and spent more than a week in a hospital, they now understand what the form means: They can't file a lawsuit against Emeritus. Instead, they must enter "arbitration," which replaces a trial before a judge or jury. A neutral party has the final word on a complaint.

Iowa lawmakers should prohibit residential care facilities from forcing families to sign such arbitration agreements.

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Don't Force Iowa Families to Sign Away Their Rights