Should Home Care Providers Be Permitted to Seek Broad Waivers of Liability from Elderly Clients? (And if so, are there clear standards for a knowing waiver?}

Recently an attorney wrote to me about an elderly client who had been victimized by a home care worker hired through an agency; the allegations included physical abuse, intimidation, identity theft, failure to provide care, theft of personal possessions and false imprisonment.  Not too surprisingly, the specific worker was long gone once the harm was discovered by non-resident family members.  Significantly, the family also learned that the mother had signed the agency’s standard contract withtwo pages of single-spaced type that covered everything from hours to wages, and which included a numbered paragraph purporting to grant a broad waiver of the agency’s liability for actions of the individuals sent to the home of the elderly client. Key language provided:

“CLIENT and/or CLIENT’s agent/responsible party agrees on behalf of CLIENT, CLIENT’s agent/responsible party, beneficiaries, heirs, and/or family/household members to release [agency], owner, officers, directors, agents and employees, office, office directors, office employees, and Caregiver from any and all liability, potential or real, for any injury, claim, damage, or loss, including attorney’s fees, incurred in connection with the performance of this agreement and all services, incurred in connection with the performance of this agreement and all services performed by Caregiver for the CLIENT, including but no limited to assisting CLIENT with his/her medications and providing transportation to Client or any member of CLIENT’s family/household, except for gross negligence….”  

The attorney asked about any state regulatory language that would limit liability waivers or require, at a minimum, bold faced type or large type for such attempted waivers when used with elderly or disabled clients. Those receiving home care may be uniquely vulnerable to unwitnessed abuse, and also less likely to report abuse because of the fear of the “worse” alternative, a nursing home.   In the state in question, regulations  require certain disclosures to be made in a form “easily read and understood,” but the regulations don’t specifically address (nor prohibit) waivers of the company’s liability. See e.g. PA Code Section 611.57.    

What about in your state? Is there relevant regulation? Alternatively, is there a “best” (or at least better) practice in the home care industry when seeking contractual waivers of liability?  The issue reminds me of an article written in the mid-1990s by Charlie Sabbatino discussing the one-sided nature of nursing home contracts in the absence of careful regulation protecting patient rights.  He wrote:

Broadly worded waivers of liability for personal injury are likely to be unenforceable and void as a matter of public policy in most states. Residents are most commonly asked to consent to absolute waivers for injury caused by other patients or by independent contractors in the facility, or for injury occurring outside of the facility, such as on a field trip. Federal and state nursing home laws have not squarely addressed personal injury waivers. even though the whole thrust of the regulatory framework is expressly intended to set standards for the protection of residents’ health, safety, and welfare.

And the subtitle of the article on Nursing Home Contracts is “Undermining Rights the Older Fashioned Way.”