…stment companies are very clever about using complex layers of corporate structure to both siphon profits and evade accountability. The owners create separate companies to collect their loot in rents and fees, leaving the company that operates the nursing home on a daily basis “holding the bag.” One private investment company executive defended this industry strategy as follows: “Lawyers were suing nursing homes because they knew the companies wer…
…nto her. While you’re at it, you can also check out the Washington Post website and read Ben Mattlin’s No Longer One of ‘Jerry’s Kids.’ The entry below is written by Diane Coleman, founder and president of Not Dead Yet.) When Mike Ervin co-founded Jerry’s Orphans in 1991, I was living in the country outside Nashville, and organized local disability activists to picket the TV station that carried the Telethon. Protest is viewed as especially impoli…
…these forms were for people near death. I asked her what she had been instructed about the form, and whether there were any materials for me. A few minutes earlier, she had given me the notification form for my annual flu shot. But nothing to accompany the MOLST form. She didn’t receive any training, either. And while I was confident filling out the form, others may not be. I believe people should receive notice that they will be hit with this ki…
…nd is the existence of laws, in many states, which allow physicians to overrule an individual’s advance directive, or individual or surrogate decision, in favor of life-sustaining treatment. These are generally called futility or futile care laws, but they don’t objectively define “futility”.[8] Instead they leave it up to the physician or hospital policy to determine what treatments are required by the prevailing “standard of care” and what treat…
…ive can shed some light on these complex issues. A few weeks ago, the Pew Trusts’ Stateline published an article[1] about POLST and I was gratified that the author contacted me about the disability perspective. The article reflected our concerns as follows: “How do we know the POLST medical order actually reflects the desires of the individual?” [We worry] that depending on how POLSTs are presented, they can make life-sustaining treatments—such as…
