In March of 2021, multiple California state legislators have joined together to propose a package of bills to promote Nursing Home reform, transparency, and to provide protections to consumers and residents of nursing homes. Senator Stern and Assembly-members Muratsuchi, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Nazarian, and Reyes introduced a seven-bill package collectively known as the Priorities Responsible Ownership, Treatment, Equity, and Corporate Transparency (PROTECT Plan). The Bills include:
- SB 650 (Stern): To ensure corporate transparency in Elder Care, requires nursing homes to submit audited consolidated financial reports so the public can see how much of its tax dollars are being spent on care for residents and how much is being directed to “related party” businesses the nursing home owns or controls;
- AB 279 (Muratsuchi): To prohibit resident eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bill prohibits intermediate care homes or nursing homes from terminating services to residents or transferring a resident to another facility without consent during any declared state of emergency related to COVID-19;
- AB 323 (Kalra): Provides an inflationary boost to nursing home citation penalties and updates criteria for AA Citations (those that cause the death of a resident) from the “direct proximate cause of death” standard to the clearer “substantial factor” test;
- AB 749 (Nazarian): Requires nursing home medical directors to be certified by the American Board of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine;
- AB 849 (Reyes): Restores facility liability to up to $500 per violation of a resident’s rights undoing the California Supreme Court’s holding in Jarman v. HCR Manorcare;
- AB 1042 (Jones-Sawyer): Establishes shared liability for entities that share ownership or control of nursing homes. Related parties will be liable for unpaid state monetary penalties for citations and unpaid quality assurance fees;
- AB 1502 (Muratsuchi): Establishes suitability standards for persons and entities seeking to run nursing homes and ends nursing home squatting, where persons or entities run nursing homes without approval from the state.
These bills need your support, please reach out to your local legislators to express your support of the bills which are part of the PROTECT Plan today!