Legislation
Legislation and further information about California bills can be found at the California Senate Bill Search page. At this site you could also subscribe to a bill and be automatically updated by e-mail as to the bill's progression through the Senate/Assembly.
Our top legislative priority is legislation that would allow medi-cal to pay for residential care facilities for the elderly (assisted living settings) for the many elderly who are forced into nursing homes not because they require nurse attention but because they are low income. For more about this, see our Olmstead Now Campaign on-line petition and background literature.
Our 2011 bill watch includes:
SB 897 (Leno): The RCFE Residents Foreclosure Protection Act – This bill will require licensees of Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly to notify Community Care Licensing of certain events that indicate fiscal distress and potential foreclosure; to notify all residents or their representatives of foreclosure; and ensure that facility closure procedures to reduce transfer trauma are followed during a foreclosure.
AB 748 (Yamada): This bill would transfer authority from the Department of Social Services to the Department of Insurance for continuing care facilities to enable improved accountability and oversight of a continuing care facility's financial health for patient's who enter into long-term care contracts.
SB 21 (Liu): This bill would assign case managers to patients currently residing or transfering to nursing homes who would provide information about the possibility of receiving care in community based, non-institutional care settings.
Our 2010 bill watch included:
AB 2555 (Feuer): Restoring Long Term Care Ombudsman Funding - This bill would use penalties paid by substandard nursing homes to help restore oversight and advocacy by local long-term care ombudsman programs. It would appropriate $1.6 million to help restore someby Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008. The bill has numerous co-sponsors.
Status: Pending
AB 1433 (Eng) Protects residents of continuing care retirement communities by establishing guidelines for care contracts allowing the resident to terminate the contract if they are displaced for more than 18 months.
Status: Passed 9/29/2010
SB 303 (Alquist) Expands the informed consent process in skilled nursing facilities by requiring that residents be informed by a physician before they make a decision about taking psychotherapeutic medications.
Status: Vetoed by Governor
Our 2009 bill watch included:
AB 215(Feuer) Requires long term care health facilities to post, in accordance with prescribed requirements, the overall facility rating information determined by the federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Status: Signed by Governor on October 11, 2009.
AB 762 (Lowenthal) Current law prohibits, with some exceptions, RCFEs from retaining patients who are considered "bedridden". This bill would redefine "bedridden" according to the California Residential Care Facility for the Elderly act, as applying only to patients who require assistance in turning and respositioning in bed and would no longer be used for patients who require assistance in transfering from bed.
Status: Signed by Governor on October 11, 2009
SB 781 (Leno) This bill would provide more rights for patients who are faced with eviction from a RCFE allowing patients to file a complaint and requiring facility to inform them of destination of discharge.
Status: Signed by Governor October 11, 2009.
SB 303 (Alquist) Would ensure residents of nursing homes and their representatives are better informed as to associated risks of using psychotropic medicines by codifying informed consent requirements, requiring patients be informed about relevant FDA warnings and mandating Department of Public Health to monitor compliance with informed consent requirements.
Status: Vetoed by Governor October 11, 2009.
AB 1169 (Rusin) Requires financial disclosure requirements by operators of Community Care or Residential Care Facilities for the elderly including full accounting of status of reserves and allocation of . Ensures disclosures of purposes and per capita costs of operation of facility.
Status: Signed by Governor October 11, 2009.
AB 1457 (Davis) Requires current and incoming residents of SNF to be informed of the name of the facility owner, licensee and single entity responsible for patient care and the operation of the facility. Requires 30 day notice of change of ownership.
Status: Signed by Governor October 11, 2009.
AB 392 (Feuer/Jones) Appropriates $1.6 million for local term ombudsman programs in California. On a one time basis it partially restores the $3.8 million cut to the ombudsman program made by the Governor in September 2008.
Status: Signed by Governor October 11, 2009.