Legal immunity in health care stays

By: Dustin Racioppi
Trenton Bureau
USA today Network - New Jersey

..... The public health emergency is over in New jJersey, and the COVID-19 pandemic is now "overwhelmingly" among people why are unvaccinated, as Governor Phil Murphy said last week. [06/17/2021]
..... But legal protections for health care facilities and workers will stay in place the next three months - and, in some cases, through the rest of the year. [2021]
..... Under the bill Democratic lawmakers passed without public input and Murphy singed earlier this month [06/2021] to end the public health emergency, facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes are protected from lawsuits except in cases of crime, misconduct or gross negligence, which lawyers say are difficult to prove.
..... Although most of the pandemic restrictions and legal orders have been lifted, the liability protections will last until September 1, [2021] the law says. For health care workers conducting COVID-19 tests and administering vaccines, the law says immunity lasts until January. [2022]
..... The extended immunity means families and loved ones of victims of suspected medical malpractice linked to COVID-19 will have no legal recourse. as they would in normal circumstances, until September, [2021] critics said.
..... "Thousands of families still want to know why there loved ones died unnecessarily in our nursing homes and our veterans homes," Senate Steve Oroho, R-Sussex, said before the vote. "If this bill becomes law, they may never get the answer that they deserve."
..... The New Jersey Association for Justice said it is :disappointed" Murphy signed the law, and that it means "one of the last things to go back to a 'new normal' will be the legal rights of thousands who have been harmed."
..... It also puts New Jersey out of sync with its neighbors and partners in th fight against the pandemic, the organization said. New York and other nearby states have lifted many of the health industry's legal protections due to the virus.
..... "We know that immunity from civil liability did not make New Jersey's nursing homes any safer in the last 15 months," Kathleen M. Reilly, the association's president, said in a statement.
"and nursing homes, hospitals, and medical providers have had a 15-month COVID-19 pass on responsibility. If no one is responsible, then no one is safe."
..... Even though hospitalization recently hit their lowest point since the pandemic began in March 2020, the New Jersey Hospital Association said the protections are still needed and will help hospitals ensure they have enough staff and COVID units in case variants cause another influx of patients.
..... "While the vaccines are doing their job, those who remain unvaccinated are still at risk, and there is very likely a need for boosters in the future," Cathy Bennett, the association's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We are not completely out of the woods just yet and this compromise ensures that we remain prepared for all possibilities as we look to a COVED-free future."

No public input:

.... There has been little debate in Trenton about the protections; lasting another three months, though lawyers and advocates have said the state should end them, as states like Connecticut and New York have done.
..... But it isn't as if anyone has had a chance to weigh in.
..... The bill to end the health emergency was introduce June 1 [2021] and had no public hearing in a legislative committee, as legislation typically proceeds. It was brought to a full vote in the Assembly and Senate on June 3. [2021]
..... Murphy announced in an email on June 4 [2021] that he had signed the bill.
..... Oroho was the only lawmaker who raised concern over the immunity extension the day before it became law.
.... The bill ending the public health emergency - which lifted dozens of Murphy's executive orders but kept many others, along with the legal immunity - passed with no Republican support in either house of the Legislature.
..... Senate President Stephen Sweeney, a prime sponsor of the bill, declined through a spokesman to comment. The office of the Assembly's prime sponsor, Craig Coughlin, did not respond to a message seeking comment.
..... When Murphy announced he had signed the bill into law, he issued a joint statement with Coughlin and Sweeney saying New Jersey "will move closer to normal than at any time since March 2020."

Time to adjust:

..... Murphy did not offer a justification for keeping the legal protections, when asked at one of his briefings this month. [06/2021]
..... His chief counsel, Parimal Garg, said it is "to give hospitals and other health care facilities an opportunity to adjust to the new reality of getting back to pre-pandemic levels of liability."
..... Murphy had put the legal protections in place through executive oder last April, [2020] when COVID-19 was a novel coronavirus raging through New Jersey.
..... The Legislature then passed a bill, which Murphy signed into law, codifying the immunity through the pandemic.
..... The powerful health care industry lobbied aggressively for the law, which also gave the administration flexibility to handle patients, such as allowing out-of-state health care staff to work here and re-certifying expired permits. Industry representatives argued that they were not trying to avoid accountability, but that regulatory changes were still needed.
.... some Democratic lawmakers have tried to end the legal immunity, but their bills have not advanced. under the new law, Murphy still has the ability to repeal or modify the order providing immunity.

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