MANAHAWKIN
CONVALESCENT VS. FRANCES O'NEILL AND
FRANCES
O'NEILL, ETC., VS. BROADWAY HEALTH CARE
MANAGEMENT,
LLC, ET AL.
A-0841-11T4
The
complaint captioned Manahawkin Convalescent v. Frances O'Neill was
dismissed. This appeal pertains to
the third-party action filed by Frances O'Neill, in her capacity as Executrix
of the Estate of Elise Hopkins v. Broadway Health Care Management, LLC, et al.
The
issue presented in this appeal is whether the Rehabilitation and Nursing Home
Admission Agreement required to be signed prior to plaintiff's mother Elise
Hopkins' admission to Manahawkin Convalescent Center violated the Nursing Home
Act,
N.J.S.A.
30:13-1 to -17, the Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act,
N.J.S.A. 56:12-14 to -18, and the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 to
-20. The narrower issue is whether
the nursing home's lawsuit filed against the
plaintiff
as the responsible party, to collect the outstanding debt owed for services
rendered for her mother's care, violates the Consumer Fraud Act.
We
recognized the long-standing "learned professional" exception to the
Consumer Fraud Act that proscribes consumer protection actions against certain
types of professionals or
industries
that are regulated by separate state or federal agencies, where such regulation
could conflict with regulation under the CFA. The Supreme Court held in certain
instances separate agencies with concurrent regulatory jurisdiction and control
may create conflicting determinations, rulings and regulations affecting the
identical subject matter.
Hospital
billing activities have been found to be within the learned professional exception
due to state and federal regulations associated with the receipt of Medicaid
and Medicare
funding. Applying that rule
of law here, we determine that defendant's nursing home is similarly regulated
and as such, their billing services fall within the "learned
professional" exception of
the CFA. 5-31-12
