Licensing of assisted-living facilities will be a priority of consumer groups.
Just weeks
before the Legislature convenes, lawmakers and consumer groups are
already gearing up for a major push to reform state laws aimed at
protecting seniors from abuse and neglect.
On Thursday, Sen. Karin Housley, the chairwoman of the Senate Family Care and Aging Committee, renewed her call for strengthening protections for the roughly 85,000 Minnesotans who live in senior care facilities across the state.
“The
mission that I plan on pursuing in this [legislative] session is: No
senior in Minnesota will be left behind,” said Housley, a Republican
from St. Marys Point, at a news event.
As Housley
was outlining her proposal, leaders of a group representing families of
abuse victims were busy working the hallways of the State Capitol,
pushing their own package of changes to the state’s system for
regulating senior homes. Their efforts are being supported by AARP
Minnesota, the state’s largest senior advocacy group, which this week
launched an online petition urging leaders in both houses of the Legislature to make elder care reform a top priority.
“The
politics have changed, and legislators have gotten the message that
elder abuse is a major concern of their constituents,” said Kristine
Sundberg, president of Elder Voice Family Advocates, a volunteer group
seeking better care for seniors. “We will not accept half measures in
2019.”
The campaign to change Minnesota’s laws protecting seniors began in earnest after the Star Tribune published a special report
in November 2017 chronicling breakdowns in the state’s handling of
elder abuse investigations and the lack of oversight of the state’s
roughly 1,200 assisted-living facilities. Minnesota is the only state in
the nation that does not license such facilities, which makes it
difficult for regulators to create and enforce minimum standards of
care, according to a state working group.
As it
stands, the licensing of assisted-living facilities appears to have
bipartisan support, with the leaders of long-term care committees in
both houses of the Legislature supporting the measure.
Rep.
Jennifer Schultz, DFL-Duluth, the incoming chair of the House
Subcommittee on Aging and Long-Term Care, said licensing would enable
the state to establish basic standards for staffing and training, as
well as rules around discharging residents and criteria for dementia
care. “If we don’t have licensure, there is no accountability,” she
said. Schultz said she expects elder care legislation to pass early in
the session.
Patti
Cullen, the head of the senior care industry’s largest trade group, Care
Providers of Minnesota, said her group also supports licensure for
assisted living and has been participating in a state work group to
develop a framework.
Beyond licensing, a coalition of senior organizations — including AARP Minnesota, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid and Elder Voice Family Advocates — is renewing its push for stronger consumer safeguards and an expansion of resident rights.
Their
legislative agenda for 2019 is ambitious. It includes changes to state
law that would grant victims’ families access to abuse investigation
reports, protections against arbitrary evictions and retaliation, and a
“private right of action” for lawsuits when seniors are abused. These
groups are also looking to enshrine in state law the right of people to
place cameras in senior facilities to monitor their loved ones.
Full Article & Source:
Minnesota lawmakers, families of abuse victims renew push for elder care reform
1 comment:
The massive bill referred to in this Star Trib article was null and void on its face. Minnesota has a "one bill-one issue" law. The bill referred to covered nursing homes, foster homes, pay schedules, drug schedules, and co-mingled adult regulations with those of minors. The bill ended with a critical assault on the fight to save the elderly from exploitation and isolation by professional predators......it changed the patients bill of rights to read that isolation can be ordered by guardians and conservators. This took the prohibition on isolation of elderly out of statute and codified it into the law! Thanks Ms Housley!
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