Tag Archives: Assisted Living
SB 648: Regulating Residential Care Referral Agencies
As the least-regulated long-term care facilities, RCFEs are easy targets for greedy referral agencies seeking to dump seniors in under-supervised environments. Some 7,800 RCFEs operate in California now, with roughly 175,000 beds available, and their numbers are expected to grow as the ranks of the elderly swell. Read More ›
Abandoned Nursing Home Residents Live Months In Hospital, Waiting
by Anna Gorman, KQED
Nursing home residents are entitled to hearings under federal law to determine whether they should be readmitted after hospitalization. The state Department of Health Care Services holds the administrative hearings, but has said it is not responsible for enforcing the rulings. But the state Department of Public Health, which oversees nursing homes, neglects to enforce the rulings and sometimes disagrees with them, according to advocates and court documents. … And since many nursing home residents have publicly-funded insurance, it means taxpayers are on the hook for hospital stays long after the patients are ready for discharge. Read More ›
Consumer Laws Taking Effect In 2016
The following consumer-related legislation was signed into law in 2015 and will take effect January 1, 2016, except as noted. Read More ›
FBI Hits Nursing Home With Search Warrants
by Marjie Lundstrom, The Sacramento Bee
California’s largest nursing home owner is facing a new round of government scrutiny as the FBI served search warrants last week at his Riverside facility. … The latest investigations shine the spotlight again on [Shlomo] Rechnitz, a 44-year-old Los Angeles entrepreneur whose facilities have been the focus of multiple local, state and federal probes, along with stepped-up scrutiny by health officials. The Bee found that homes he owned for all of last year were tagged with nearly triple as many serious deficiencies per 1,000 beds as the statewide average in 2014. Read More ›
California’s Largest Nursing Home Owner Under Fire From Government Regulators
Since 2006, [Shlomo] Rechnitz and his primary company, Brius Healthcare Services, have acquired 81 nursing homes up and down the state, many of them through bankruptcy court. His chain has grown so quickly that he now controls about 1 in every 14 nursing home beds in California, giving him an outsized influence on quality of care in the state. … Between October and January, three of Rechnitz’s facilities, including South Pasadena, were decertified by the federal government, an economic kiss of death that is extremely rare. The punishment strips a nursing home of its crucial Medicare funding until it can demonstrate improvement, or is closed or sold. Read More ›
CFC Sponsors Bill To Protect Seniors From Unethical Long-Term Care Referral Agencies
SACRAMENTO – The Consumer Federation of California (CFC) is sponsoring Senate Bill 648 (Mendoza, D-Artesia) to increase disclosure requirements and strengthen oversight of private placement agencies that refer seniors to residential care facilities for the elderly (RCFEs). Read More ›
Castro Valley: Two Charged With Felony Elder Abuse In Abandoned Care Home Case
by Katie Nelson and Karina Ioffee, Contra Costa Times
The charges come after the shocking Valley Springs case and other incidents around the state shined a light on the state Department of Social Services’ oversight of such facilities. … The Department of Social Services, which oversees the licensing of senior care facilities like Valley Springs Manor, admitted that they had a “complete breakdown” in communication and that the closure forced them to re-evaluate their closure process as well as update training for state employees who monitor facilities. Read More ›
Nursing Homes Rarely Penalized For Oversedating Patients
by Ina Jaffe, Robert Benincasa, National Public Radio
NPR’s analysis [of federal data] found that harsh penalties are almost never used when nursing home residents get unnecessary drugs of any kind. … The agency’s new goal for nursing homes is an additional 15 percent reduction in antipsychotic drug use by the end of 2016. But even if that goal is met, it will mean that after a five-year effort, almost a quarter of a million nursing home residents will still be getting largely unnecessary and potentially lethal antipsychotic drugs. Read More ›
Unmasked: How California’s Largest Nursing Home Chains Perform
by Marjie Lundstrom and Phillip Reese, The Sacramento Bee
Knowing who owns what can be critical for fragile patients seeking long-term care, according to a Sacramento Bee investigation, which analyzed thousands of federal and state records detailing the ownership of the state’s 1,260 nursing homes. In addition to identifying owners with at least a 5 percent stake in any California-based facility, The Bee also examined government and industry data to determine how the largest owners and their facilities performed on 46 measures, including quality-of-care indicators, staffing, complaints and deficiencies found during inspections. Read More ›
Brown Signs Package of Assisted-Living Reform Bills
by Deborah Schoch, The CHCF Center for Health Reporting / The California Report
Brown’s signature is a major victory for assisted living residents, “We look at it as a good start,” said Patricia McGinnis, executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. “But we’re not finished by any stretch of the imagination. And I don’t think the legislators are, either. I think they like the fact that they’re going to be changing people’s lives on an immediate basis.” The governor has approved all 13 assisted living bills passed by the Legislature. Read More ›
Some Assisted-Care Safeguards For Seniors Advance
An ambitious drive to protect seniors living in residential care facilities for the elderly continues to progress through the committee process as the Legislature works toward its summer recess, scheduled to begin July 4. The action is in Sacramento, but the impetus comes from families around the state. Read More ›
Promised Care-Home Reform Laws Lose Momentum
by Melody Gutierrez, San Francisco Chronicle
Myriad bills were proposed at the beginning of the year to increase transparency and accountability in residential care facilities, which were under intense scrutiny last year following several reports detailing widespread failings in the state’s management of residential care facilities. By the time the legislative session ended Saturday, the most sweeping changes to the system had been either killed in committee or amended to the point that some advocates considered pulling their support. Still, 12 bills were sent to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has already signed two of them. Four were killed in committee. Read More ›
Bill Requiring Public Access To Care Facility Inspection Reports Passes
by Katie Nelson, San Jose Mercury News
SB 895 would mandate care facilities to fix within 10 days – unless otherwise directed – any deficiencies found during inspections. It’s part of a larger legislative package to force the Department of Social Services to revise several of its practices, prompted in part by the abandonment of 19 residents at Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley in late October when the department abruptly shuttered the facility. SB 895 is the first of the package to see any major success. Last week, two of the package’s bills were killed in the state’s senate appropriations committee due to “fiscal reasons.” Read More ›