Deadlock ends over nursing home records Post highlighted

April 25--WELLINGTON -- A widow who said she was unable to get her husband's records from a Wellington nursing home where he died last year received them days after a story appeared in The Palm Beach Post.

"After eight months, it's a miracle," Annette Kotler said. "We were fighting over a piece of paper. No one deserves that aggravation. A person is worth more than that."

After The Palm Beach Post published the story online, the Florida Justice Association volunteered the services of a local attorney at no charge to the family.

The story threw a spotlight on a Florida law signed by Gov. Rick Scott last year that was supposed to make it easier for families to get records, while making it harder to sue passive investors in nursing homes.

A nursing home executive said he felt "horrible" and wanted to help but federal law prevented simply handing them over.

Officials at NuVista Living, near the Wellington Green mall, said they had no additional comment this week.

The Florida law says a surviving spouse or child may ask for a deceased person's medical records, but it also says a request must be compliant with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA.

That created a conflict, as nursing home officials saw it, because a person authorized under Florida's law can be, but is not always, the same as the personal representative under HIPAA.

One advocate for families with loved ones in nursing homes called the Florida law a "charade."

Groups representing seniors and attorneys disagreed, saying the law lowered barriers even if an attorney might be still be needed to prepare forms certifying a spouse or family member is eligible to receive the records.

A nursing home trade group, The Florida Health Care Association, last spring hailed a "historic agreement" involving AARP and the Florida Justice Association to provide "a workable framework for providing appropriate medical records to family members."

Irving Kotler's surviving family members said they did not have a lot of money to pay attorneys. Kotler's daughter Beth Klein, who works as a cashier, and her mother on Social Security in Delray Beach wondered why they could not simply get the records with a photo ID and a copy of the death certificate showing she is the surviving spouse.

Annette Kotler sought help after months of frustration.

"I lived with Irving for 63 years," she said in the newspaper's April 12 story. "I shouldn't be able to get his records? I have to have closure."

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