Martha Marx

SENATOR MARX JOINS SENATE PASSAGE OF LEGISLATION IMPROVING NURSING HOME TRANSPARENCY, REPORTING, PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA

Today, State Senator Martha Marx (D-New London) joined the Senate’s passage of legislation addressing nursing home transparency and reporting requirements, expanding supports for people with dementia, and implementing recommendations of the Homemaker-Companion Agency Task Force. This bill, set to become law with the Governor’s signature, was designed by the Aging Committee to aid seniors and their families.

“As a home-care nurse, I am thrilled by some of the changes in this bill,” said Sen. Marx. “This bill will ensure we will have more information about nursing home ownership – helping us understand their financial positions – and improve regulations for homemaker-companion agencies, among other changes that will improve the safety of our seniors and the care they receive.”

House Bill 5781, “An Act Concerning A Study Of The Needs Of Senior Citizens,” makes a number of changes including: Requiring nursing homes to notify the Long-Term Care ombudsman about involuntary transfers or discharges on the same day a resident is notified. Failure to do so will invalidate a transfer; Establishing a dementia services coordinator position within the Department of Aging and Disability Services; Requiring nursing homes to submit annual narrative cost expenditures summaries to the Department of Social Services and requiring the DSS commissioner to create a uniform narrative summary form for nursing homes to use; Requiring nursing home licensure applicants to disclose private equity or real estate investment trust owning any part of a home; they must also give the Department of Public Health an owner’s audited and certified financial statements; Requiring the Office of Policy and Management to develop a plan and proposed timeline to transfer homemaker-companion agency oversight from the Department of Consumer Protection to the Department of Public Health; A homemaker-companion agency that fails to give consumers written notice that an agency provides nonmedical care will be considered a violation for which its registration can be revoked, suspended or refused to issue/renew; violation of revokable provisions three times in a calendar year will require revocation of such registration; Homemaker-companion agencies will be required to develop service plans or contracts with consumers; such plans must include person-centered plans of care, oversight by employee agencies and how often agency representatives and consumers will meet.

With the bill’s previous passage by the Aging Committee and House, it now heads to Governor Lamont’s desk to be signed into law.