Nursing homes and long term care facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid funds will be banned from requiring residents to accept pre-dispute arbitration clauses in their contracts due to a new ruling from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The end to this practice will return the option to sue and go to trial for this vulnerable population. It is expected that most of these facilities will discontinue the practice of forcing residents to sign these agreements. Information that signing meant the residents gave up their right to trial often went unnoticed in the fine print.
This is an excellent move, and hopefully will be the start of eliminating these clauses in other areas involving contracts.
