NY lawmakers OK cutting back nursing homes’ legal shield
New York lawmakers voted Thursday to strip away pieces of the broad legal shield they gave nursing homes, hospitals and other health care facilities to fend off lawsuits and criminal prosecutions over coronavirus care.
The state Senate and Assembly voted Thursday to limit the wide-ranging protection, which the Democrat-led Legislature agreed to in early April when the virus was raging in New York.
But now, with the virus surge tamed and the state reckoning with the nation’s highest death toll — more than 25,000 confirmed coronavirus fatalities statewide, including over 6,500 in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities — many lawmakers are having second thoughts.