INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Advocates for nursing home residents say they worry a new Indiana law expanding COVID-19 liability protections for health care providers will effectively block many lawsuits over neglect and substandard treatment that weren’t caused by the pandemic.
The new law applies retroactively to when Indiana’s first COVID-19 infections were reported in March 2020. The nursing home industry argues it will keep facilities financially viable by shielding them from a potential flood of coronavirus-related lawsuits.
Critics of the law, however, maintain it lets nursing homes escape responsibility for deaths and injuries caused by problems that preceded the pandemic, such as inadequate staffing.
