Florida Bills to Cap Damages in Lawsuits Against Foster Care Agencies UPDATED

There is no shame in Florida this week. Our Kids Miami-Dade/Monroe Inc., a non-profit private provider of foster care services, who was the Barahonas’ homestudy agency, gave data to craft  twin bills filed on March 2, 2011 in both the Florida Senate and House. These bills “would cap damages in lawsuits brought against private groups overseeing the care of foster children, regardless of negligence.”

“The proposals also would shield the Florida Department of Children and Families from lawsuits filed against private companies hired by the state to place foster children in homes.”

Our Kids “said that the legislation will remove a hurdle to staying in business: sharply rising insurance liability costs. Only a handful of insurers write policies to such groups, Our Kids spokeswoman Kadie Black said.

Our Kids received government grants worth $100 million in 2009. The non-profit has not been turned down for insurance, she said, but premiums have risen by 64 percent to $191,663 since 2009.

Providers statewide are struggling with similarly rising rates, said Michael Cusick, president and CEO of the Florida Coalition for Children, a statewide umbrella group of private foster care providers. “We’re trying to make sure the system isn’t bankrupt,” he said. ”

Pain and suffering damages would be capped at between $200,000 and $1 Million, depending on how many agencies were involved.

The president of Florida’s Children First, argues that, “These caps do not begin to provide a lifetime of care,” especially given the fact that the care starts in childhood.

Take the Barahona case. DCF would not release the amount of money spent to date on Victor Barahona’s two-week hospital stay, citing patient confidentiality. However, said Rosenberg, “Generally, burns are very difficult to treat and require long-term care. Plainly, the child will have psychological issues as well.”

‘Barahona Relief Act’ Bills Would Limit Monetary Awards
[Palm Beach Post 3/3/11 by Pat Beall]

No lawsuits have been filed yet in the Barahona case, but the timing of these bills is truly disgusting!

Full text of the bills can be found here.

Update: Apparently, there is still no shame in Florida…HB1019 advances in the House.

“A measure capping legal damages for agencies providing foster care services cleared a House committee on an 11-4 vote Wednesday, despite emotional testimony from opponents who said lawmakers are putting dollars ahead of the safety of children in a troubled system.”

Critics say: “This legislation is not in the public’s interest,” said Thomas Bates, a child advocate from Monticello who was raised in foster care. “It decreases the rights of foster children and it allows agencies to escape responsibility.”

“”They’re trying to impose tort reform on the backs of foster children,” Dolce [of Florida’s Children’s First] said.”

By the Numbers: “Plakon’s proposal would cap financial awards for pain and suffering at between $200,000 and $1 million, and would limit economic damages at $2 million.

Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg, is sponsoring a similar bill (SB 1500). The bills also would lower the amount of liability insurance the agencies must carry from $1 million to $500,000.

The measures also would hold DCF harmless from lawsuits filed against the agencies, which in some cases have topped tens of millions of dollars. ”

Despite Barahona Case Concerns Liability Limits for Foster Care Agencies Advances in the House
[Palm Beach Post 3/16/11 by John Kennedy]

Update 2: The 2 views of this Bill which is in the hands of the Florida Senate.

“Here are their two views on key issues.

Wasn’t part of the promise of privatization that providers would have better insurance for kids?

Robin Rosenberg, deputy director of Florida’s Children First, whose executive director Christina Spudeas calls the legislation “like a sick joke”: “What they said at the time was, ‘Let’s get the benefit of running this as a private community organization, but make them purchase insurance, and that way if something happens and children are harmed, they’ll have adequate insurance to cover their injuries.’

“They didn’t want to be the government, they wanted to be exempt from the rules of the government, and they wanted to work like a private business. Well, private businesses have insurance. They manage their risk and purchase insurance to cover claims.”

Glen Casel, CEO of Community-Based Care of Central Florida, the nonprofit that recently won a bid to manage the child-welfare system in Orange and Osceola counties: “When it came into the realm of private nonprofits, it took several years for the insurance market to adjust. Now the rates are soaring. We don’t want to duck accountability. I don’t want anything remotely like [complete] immunity because I don’t think that’s fair to kids. But it can’t be unlimited. We need to find a balance that allows you to function as an agency and still protect kids.”

How bad are the insurance-rate increases?

Rosenberg: “They’re going around and telling everyone they have this crisis, but they never put any information out that showed what the crisis was. They’ve never come forward and said: ‘This is how much our rates have gone up, or these are businesses that can’t get insurance anymore.’ We’re actually doing a public-records request to get that information because right now we’re boxing a shadow.”

Casel: “Talk to the Children’s Home Society and [CEO] Dave Bundy — their premiums have swung wildly [from nearly $750,000 a year for the statewide nonprofit, which has been put on notice that it will face at least a 50 percent increase, if the insurer doesn’t decide to drop the agency altogether. The agency also has received a notice of nonrenewal].

“The increases are all over the place, so I can’t give you an average. But if we leave it unchecked, it’s going to become so unwieldy that it will drive people out of the business. These are nonprofits — these are not big multimillion-dollar corporations. The difference between a $20,000 policy and a $60,000 policy is a case-manager position.”

If the legislation passes, what do you see as the impact on foster children?

Rosenberg: If they do this, kids are still going to get injured. God only knows the horrible things we’ve seen recently, such as the Barahona case in Miami. [The decomposed body of former foster child Nubia Barahona was found in the back of the pickup of her adoptive and former foster-care father, Jorge Barahona, along Interstate 95. Her twin brother, Victor, also adopted by the family, had been found hours earlier in the pickup’s cab, soaked with toxic chemicals and convulsing. He suffered extensive burns but survived. The adoptive parents have been charged with murder.]

“The boy’s medical needs would still be provided by Medicaid, but if the amount of insurance coverage is lower, Medicaid will not be fully reimbursed, as it is now when a child recovers damages. And he is going to need therapy for a long time. The Barahona case is an example of what can happen. There were a lot of mistakes by the [nonprofit agency] in that case. Those children should not have remained in that home.”

Casel: “That case is so sad, so tragic. No matter how long I do this work, I never stop feeling the pain of what some people can do to children. But while it’s a difficult time to have this discussion, it illustrates the point: What is the right limit for liability? If the right limit is millions and millions, there will no longer be nonprofit agencies that do this work.”

The bill already has passed one House subcommittee by a comfortable margin but hasn’t moved too far in the Senate yet. What do you think its chances are?

Rosenberg: “We pray the bill is dead in the Senate. The problem is that there’s language on this in the Senate Medicaid bill as well. It’s buried on page 163. And that version actually has lower limits of liability than the stand-alone bill does. That Senate bill — it’s called a train. They’re putting everything on there because they think it’s going to pass.”

Casel: “I’m sure the limits of liability [in the current legislation] are going to move around. I’ve personally reached out to some of the child-advocacy agencies that have been outspoken in their opposition just to say, ‘What do you think that right balance is?’

“I would compare it to the situation in the medical world with emergency rooms. If a doctor makes a mistake there, you can have extreme harm — but you still need to have emergency rooms.””

Two sides wrestle over limiting liability for Florida’s foster kids
[Sun-Sentinel 3/20/11 by Kate Santich]

REFORM Puzzle Piece