If an Illinois Nursing Home abuses, injures or kills your loved one, you may have no recourse.  Currently, there is no mandatory insurance coverage for Illinois Nursing Homes, assisted living facilities or long-term care facilities.  It is up to the facility to decide if they want insurance and if so how much coverage they desire.

Many victims of nursing home abuse go uncompensated for injuries sustained due to the fault of the staff because of the failure of Illinois to require insurance coverage.  Nursing homes may appear to have large assets and be capable of satisfying any judgment against them.  The truth is that most facilities  have a complicated corporate structure to make a recovery difficult.  Further, many nursing home owners are sham corporations governed by foreign law.

In an effort to change the current state of nursing homes in Illinois, House Representatives John Bradley and Mary Flowers, are the sponsors of House Bill 3445.  HB 3445 amends the current Nursing Home Care Act and would require the following:

• Require nursing home owners to have minimum insurance of 1 million per occurrence
• Allows the Illinois Department of Public Health to revoke nursing home license for owners without the necessary coverage
• Provides a penalty for facilities without coverage as 'Type A' violation under the Nursing Home Care Act
• Forces disclosure of each nursing home's insurance policy to the public
• Forces a nursing home licensee to pay 3 times the actual damages, or $500 whichever is greater (rather than the actual damages) and costs and attorney's fees to a resident whose rights have been violated

HB 3445 is an important piece of legislation for all current nursing home residents and for the people of the State of Illinois.  Contact your State Representative and tell them you support HB 3445.