Bill > A2292

Introduced Session

This bill revises a current statutory requirement for the Department of Health to prepare a report setting forth a comparison of the evaluative profiles of nursing homes and to provide notice to the public of life threatening conditions in nursing homes, to make these requirements applicable to all long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living residences, comprehensive personal care homes, residential health care facilities, and dementia care homes, and to require the report be updated at least quarterly. Additionally, to facilitate the implementation of these requirements, the bill requires the department to establish standards and protocols for inspecting long-term care facilities to ensure each facility is in continuing compliance with all State and federal statutes, rules, regulations, and guidelines related to health, safety, and operations. The revised inspection requirements are to include, at a minimum: 1) a review of the long-term care facility's policies, procedures, and standards to ensure they are consistent with applicable State and federal requirements and to ensure the facility is adhering to its policies, procedures, and standards; 2) an inspection of the physical plant of the long-term care facility; 3) a review of staffing levels at the long-term care facility; and 4) a review of each mandatory and advisory service provided by the facility. The Commissioner of Health will have the authority to increase the number of inspections of long-term care facilities in a calendar year, increase the duration or scope of an inspection, and station a member of the department's inspection team within a long-term care facility to monitor compliance. If the department determines that it is necessary to increase the number of inspections of long-term care facilities, the department will be permitted to phase in the increase over a two-year period while it acquires the needed staff and resources to implement the increase. Upon determining that a long-term care facility is not in compliance with State and federal requirements related to health, safety, and operations, and particularly when determining that a facility has repeatedly violated the same health, safety, or operational requirement or that a facility has a health, safety, or operational violation with a severity rating of I or higher, an inspector will be permitted to consult with superiors within the department, and document quality assurance activities, when developing a corrective plan for the facility.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Yvonne Lopez (D)*,  Carol Murphy (D)*,  Anthony Verrelli (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document