Florida state lawmakers are debating whether to retroactively raise the bar when it comes to filing COVID-19-related lawsuits against healthcare providers.
The move comes after almost 120 lawsuits have been filed in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties for negligence or malpractice against long-term care facilities since March 1 of last year, according to a report by NBC Miami.
More than 10,800 residents and staff members of long-term care facilities have died in Florida due to complications from COVID-19, according to data from the Florida Department of Health. That’s 33% of Florida’s overall death toll from the virus. Proponents of the enhanced liability immunity measures say that the state should shield healthcare providers from unnecessary lawsuits, citing structural and logistical challenges, such as staffing, that goes beyond the control of the institutions.
But opponents argue that the bills (House Bill 7005 and Senate Bill 74) would make it more difficult for mistreated residents and patients to hold healthcare providers accountable. State Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg) authored Senate Bill 74, which would raise the legal threshold to successfully bring a case against a long-term care facility to “gross negligence” or “intentional misconduct.” The bill also would make health providers immune from lawsuits if supplies or personnel “were not readily available or not available at a reasonable cost.”
“If we’re going to reopen the economy, we’ve got to get liability in place,” Brandes told NBC Miami. “PPE in some of these nursing homes were a shower cap, a trash bag, and a homemade mask.”
