Proposed legislation that drew the wrath of the senior citizen lobby, expressed in full-page protest ads that appeared over the weekend in 10 Kansas newspapers, is probably dead.

The bill, which aimed to block the use of state reports in lawsuits against nursing homes, “isn’t going anywhere,” a key proponent of the measure predicted Monday.

“I don’t want to say it’s completely dead,” said Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden. “But I’m not optimistic, either.”

The bill — Senate Bill 430 as amended — was the subject of full-page ads in at least 10 daily newspapers Sunday, including the Journal-World.

Financed by AARP Kansas, the ads encouraged readers to “Call (their) Representatives today and tell them to vote NO!”

“Very few people knew about the bill or what it would do — that’s why we ran the ads,” said Ernie Kutzley, advocacy director at AARP Kansas.

Kutzley said the bill would harm nursing home residents and their families by limiting their abilities to sue negligent nursing homes.

“Let’s say your mother suffers a serious injury in a nursing home and past inspection reports show that her injury is part of a trend, that others have suffered the same injury,” Kutzley said. “Senate Bill 430 as amended says this information can’t be used in court unless it specifically pertains to your mother’s individual case. You couldn’t use it to show a trend.”

Bethell, a former nursing home administrator, disagreed.

“There is nothing in the bill that limits an attorney’s access to information,” Bethell said. “All it says is that if the surveyors happened to find a mouse in the kitchen and if that mouse had nothing to do with what happened to your mother, her attorney can’t use the surveys to say it did.”

By reducing exposure to lawsuits, Bethell said he hoped the bill would reduce nursing home insurance premiums.

“Right now, we’re spending a ton of money on liability insurance — money that lines the pockets of trial lawyers,” he said.

Asked how many nursing homes were sued annually, Bethell said he didn’t know.

“There aren’t many,” he said. “They almost always settle out of court, so it’s hard to know. Frankly, the settlements aren’t that much because we’re a tort-reform state; they’re capped. But that’s not the point; the point is what’s happening to insurance premiums.”

Currently, one-fourth of the state’s 375 nursing homes are said to be without liability insurance.

“My point in all this is I’d rather see that money spent on quality of care,” Bethell said.

The Kansas Trial Lawyers Assn. also opposes the bill.

“Before it was amended, Senate Bill 430 left it up to a judge to decide what’s admissible. We don’t have a problem with that,” said Barb Conant, a lobbyist for the association. “But the way the bill reads now is such a radical departure from the rules of evidence, there’s no way we can support it.”

Other organizations opposed to the bill include Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services, Statewide Independent Living Council of Kansas and Kansas Advocates for Better Care.