CANHR STAFF

SB 311 would require the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to submit a State Plan Amendment for California to become a Part A Buy-In State. SB 311 would benefit low-income older Californians and persons with disabilities, who rely on Medicare and Medi-Cal but struggle to pay costly Medicare Part A premiums, by simplifying the enrollment process for financial assistance.

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) is proud to sponsor and support AB 1309, a bill that would curtail the epidemic of unsafe evictions from California nursing homes.

Despite dangerous side effects, condemnation by care providers, and a decade-long national and state campaign to reduce the inappropriate use of psychotropic drugs in nursing homes, the U.S. Office of Inspector General recently found that 80% of long-stay nursing home residents are receiving psychotropic drugs.  A big reason why so many residents are drugged is that they are never given information about the risks, benefits, and alternatives to psychotropic drugs and the choice to refuse them. 

As a next step toward offering meaningful, person-centered health care to people experiencinghomelessness, AB 1085 (Maienschein) would require DHCS to seek federal approval for a Medi-Cal housing support services benefit in 2024. Setting a deadline will drive plans to develop theircapacity and providers to participate, improve health outcomes among Californians experiencinghomelessness, reduce homelessness, standardize eligibility, and draw down millions of federaldollars that we are currently not accessing.

Due to inadequate training and policy guidance, police all too often don’t know how best toprevent, report and respond to major crimes against seniors and people with disabilities.AB 751 will finally change that, by requiring every local police and sheriff’s department to adopta specific, detailed senior and disability victimization policy guiding officers and spelling out anofficer training schedule.

Quality patient care requires strong staffing levels. SB 525 (Durazo) will bolster efforts to fill the hugeshortage of healthcare workers our state is facing by ensuring that health care workers are fairlycompensated. By setting a $25/hour minimum wage we can attract the workers we need to ensure we do not see a decline in quality of care for communities across California.

AB 979 modernizes existing family council laws, so that members can meet and communicateelectronically and continue to operate during a public health emergency. The bill also ensures thatfacilities will be more responsive to concerns raised by family councils, discourages operatorsfrom undermining family council activities, and clarifies that control of the family councilmembership and participation in meetings lies with the family council itself.

SB 278 will strengthen California’s elder financial abuse protections by clarifying current language in statutes governing elder financial abuse under Welfare & Institutions Code §15610.30.