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AB 499 seeks to amend California law governing referral agencies for assisted living facilities (known in California as Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly or RCFEs) to provide accountability, but instead creates unnecessary communication and compliance barriers. Specifically, while the bill allows referral agencies to provide information to seniors about its services and fees verbally, it requires seniors to submit a written request if they want to receive such information in writing.

The Britney Spears conservatorship case exposed deep flaws within California’s probate conservatorship system – demonstrating how easily people can become trapped in a conservatorship and how difficult it is to escape. People with disabilities and older adults are often caught in the pipeline to conservatorship, a system that strips them of basic civil rights and their ability to advocate for themselves.

If submitting electronically, please copy the text below, and we encourage you to add your personal stories and perspective to it. If submitting by mail you can DOWNLOAD A WORD FILE to edit and print out. Governor Gavin NewsomState Capitol, 1st FloorSacramento, CA 95814 sent via email to leg.unit@gov.ca.gov RE: SB 650 (Stern) – Signature Requested Dear Governor Newsom: I am writing in support SB 650, a bill that will bring much-needed corporate transparency to public nursing home spending.

If submitting electronically, please copy the text below, and we encourage you to add your personal stories and perspective to it. If submitting by mail you can DOWNLOAD A WORD FILE to edit and print out. Governor Gavin NewsomState Capitol, 1st FloorSacramento, CA 95814 sent via email to leg.unit@gov.ca.gov RE: AB 849 (Gómez Reyes) – Signature Requested Dear Governor Newsom: I urge you to sign AB 849, a bill that will restore a critical tool for protecting the rights and well-being of nursing home residents.  Nursing home residents have been living a nightmare of isolation and death and they are in dire need of the private right of enforcement that was lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Residents whose rights are violated are now limited to $500 in damages, no matter how many or how egregious the violations.  This creates an intolerable situation where harmful nursing home conduct becomes profitable.    Health and Safety Code Section 1430(b) was enacted to protect and ensure the rights of people living in nursing homes.  Last year, 1430(b) was dealt a devastating blow when the State Supreme Court ruled that the maximum damages available to residents / victims whose rights have been violated was $500, regardless of the severity or number of violations.  As acknowledged by some of the Justices, the decision could not have come at a worse time for nursing home residents.  Complaints against nursing homes are at an all-time high and the California Department of Public Health has never been less able to protect the rights and welfare of residents.  Years of lax enforcement and the Supreme Court’s decision means there are virtually no repercussions for nursing homes that break the rules.  AB 849 will deter harmful conduct in nursing homes and restore residents’ ability to seek damages for each violation they have suffered.  The bill is an essential piece of the legislature’s 2021 PROTECT Plan, a package of bills aimed at reforming nursing homes to improve state oversight, financial transparency, accountability, and ultimately enhance care for all residents.

Currently, the Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act (EADACPA) establishes procedures and requirements for reporting instances of known or suspected abuses or neglect of a California elder or dependent adult. Information relevant to the incident is to be given to specified investigators, including investigators from an adult protective services agency, a local law enforcement agency, and the probate court.

The facilities with the worst COVID-19 outbreaks are by and large those with long histories of deficient infection prevention and control, and chronic understaffing. While no facility may have anticipated a pandemic of this magnitude, those that were particularly ill-equipped have fared the worst during this pandemic. AB 6 (Levine) would require Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Department of Social Services (DSS) to mandate health and safety guidelines for use by skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities and congregate living health facilities that are providing postacute care during a pandemic, public health crisis or other emergency.

This article is related to Assembly Bill 279 and Senate Bill 650, both Sponsored by CANHR. By Richard Winton, Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, March 15 2021 California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, pictured during a Sept. 5 news conference, is part of the lawsuit against Brookdale Senior Living Inc.(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) A coalition of California prosecutors has sued the nation’s largest senior living operator, alleging it ignored laws that protect patients when they are discharged from skilled nursing facilities and that it exaggerated the level of care to the federal government’s nursing home rating system.