Guy Thiessen, the managing attorney of Carr & Carr’s Tulsa offices, and 2008 President of Oklahoma Association for Justice, is featured in two prominent publications today:
Capitol News Now: New Report Scores Lawmakers on Consumer, Patient Safety Support
Excerpt from Page 10, continued from Page 1…
…SB 1549, by Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, and Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, would have modified language related to the Oklahoma Medicaid False Claims Act. Under language added to the bill, it also would have required facilities to have a liability insurance policy, unless otherwise able to prove they could fiscally cover claims, but that language was removed. Guy Thiessen, a civil justice attorney in Tulsa, said the Legislature should implement such a mandate.
“The protection of our state’s elderly should be a bipartisan concern,” he said. Thiessen has spent 15 years representing nursing home patients and families who have suffered from abuse and neglect. Many nursing home operators have formed corporations to protect owners from liability, which inhibits a victim’s ability to seek damages for suffering abuse and neglect at the homes, he said…
Tulsa World: Nursing Homes Seek Shield
By Mick Hinton / World Capitol Bureau
OKLAHOMA CITY – A Tulsa attorney said Tuesday that some Oklahoma nursing homes are forming multiple corporations to avoid liability when patients sue for better care.
“I’ve witnessed a nationwide trend that is also occurring in Oklahoma where owners form a series of corporations,” said Guy Thiessen, who primarily represents patients suing nursing homes.
Thiessen said nursing home owners will form one corporation that owns a facility. Another corporation with the same officers will be formed to carry out operations, “but that corporation will have almost zero assets,” he said, noting that the nursing home corporation will pay “exorbitant rent” for the facilities it occupies.
He did not provide names of any nursing homes doing that.
Thiessen and others discussed lawmakers’ votes on health-related legislation during a state Capitol news conference Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Glenn Coffee, co-president pro tem of the Oklahoma Senate, scored the lowest on several bills considered consumer-friendly by the Oklahoma Center for Consumer and Patient Safety, which sponsored the news conference. Coffee, of Oklahoma City, voted 42 percent of the time for bills that the group supported.
House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, received a 68 percent approval rating.
Bills considered key to patients’ needs included ones that would provide health insurance for autistic children and cancer victims who elect to undergo “clinical trials.” Both of those bills were killed when they reached the House last session.
Meanwhile, Rep. Doug Cox, part-owner of two nursing homes, stalled a bill that would have required such facilities to provide liability insurance. Cox, an emergency room physician and Grove Republican, said small nursing homes like his could not afford the expensive insurance.
Thiessen said about 55 percent of Oklahoma’s nursing homes do not carry liability insurance.
He noted that the American Health Lawyers Association provides nursing homes with a journal explaining how they can restructure their finances to limit liability for their services.
Posted by Sharon D.
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