The state’s advocate for senior citizens says they need to launch a petition drive to enact reforms in nursing home laws, if the nursing home lobby blocks reforms in the upcoming legislative session. Nursing home reform has failed to pass the legislature the past three years. Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell says he decided to seriously consider a petition drive after the third failure to get nursing home reforms through the legislature earlier this year. He says the recent series of articles in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has exposed horror stories that nursing home critics know have existed for some time. Maxwell says good nursing homes should get recognition, but that bad ones should not be able to slip past fines and license losses.
