Initial and Renewal Administrator Courses!
Mike and Robin heartily endorse National Care Professionals Institute as your initial and continuing education vendors. It managed by our daughter and son-in-law, Carlos and Kallie Rojo,who are approved to teach the 80-hour RCFE initial administrator training and the 40-hour RCFE and ARF administrator renewal courses using online and live streaming courses. They teach caregiver training, too, in both English and Spanish, and have first aid and CPR instruction for staff. Carlos and Kallie also have BRN and NHA credits, too. Check out their required workplace violence prevention plan. Call NCPI at (619) 322-9578 for information or register or go to www.nationalcareprofessionals.com. They frequently have discounts on their courses!
Mike has facility resources on his website
Mike and Robin still maintain their website to assist facilities stay in compliance by accessing many required resources. Follow our link: https://rfce4you.com/product-category/products-and-services/. These resources include the mandatory regulation subscription service, emergency disaster plan, dementia plan of operation, infection control plan and more. We continue to offer our complete RCFE new facility application, and we do appeal for facilities incorrectly cited.
Liability and Worker’s Compensation Insurance
If you trusted Willy Halle with your RCFE insurance needs, he has retired. He has appointed Patrick Perlas as his Broker of Record for his existing accounts. Perlas Insurance has over 34 years of experience providing services to the healthcare industry. Willy is working with the Perlas Group to assist in providing insurance services to any new owners or licensees for liability, workers compensation and property. He will also assist all current clients with their 2025 renewals to make the transition as smoothly as possible. Call the Perlas Group at (818) 468-4017 or email Patrick Perlas at jpatrick@perlasinsurance.com. You may contact Willy at (760) 835-1884 or willyhalle@gmail.com. Willy sends his THANKS to all his past and present clients and to those that provide exceptional care for their residents.
Industry Updates and Legislation
AB251, written by Ash Kalra (D-San Jose), is on the governor’s desk for either signature or veto. This bill addresses claims of resident abuse and a court’s response. One response is to allow a court to apply a “preponderance of evidence” standard to any alleged elder or dependent adult abuse case.
SB582, Henry Stern (D-Sherman Oaks), is on the governor’s desk. This bill will amend numerous laws including emergency disaster plans and add several other laws if signed by the governor. The bill is supposed to “encourage an RCFE to provide a copy of its emergency plan to a medical health operational area coordinator.” This person is defined in the law as the county’s health officer and a local EMS agency administrator. The bill would add a provision for a facility to file for an inactive status if the property were destroyed or damaged as a result of an emergency or disaster.
SB433, rent control placed upon ARFs and RCFEs, is still on hold, “held under submission.” Part of the submission is because DSS has estimated the cost to the state to implement a rent control law could near $3 million per year. A legislative analyst said the bill would only affect facilities that are “contracted for services provided to a resident enrolled in Medi-Cal from charging the resident a room and board rate exceeding the difference between the resident’s income and a personal and incidental needs amount allowed for Social Security Income/State Supplementary Program (SSI/SSP) residents, as specified.” As current law and regulations state a facility cannot charge an SSI/SSP dependent resident any amount beyond the state-established rate. This bill is completely unnecessary as Title 22 regulations, 87464 and 85060 prohibit facilities from charging additional monies to SSI/SSP residents. However, regulations do allow for “voluntary contributions” provided by relatives or others. If SB433 fails passage, it would not affect facilities, but if it does eventually get passed, it still would have little or no effect. One fear is the legislature will eventually attempt to overturn Health and Safety Codes 1569.147 and 1518 and implement “rent controls” unrelated to Medi-Cal provisions. Hopefully, the bill just dies.
SB434 remains “under submission.” Some current information was released that DSS predicts it would have to hire more than 15 staff to monitor the 90-day eviction notice to residents based upon “tenure” or length of stay. The cost to the state could reach over $3 million per year. Those bills usually do not come out of the submission status.
SB582, authored by Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles, Ventura), is sitting on the governor’s desk awaiting signature or veto. It has been on his desk since September 22. This bill was amended prior to legislative passage but makes even less sense because it further ties skilled nursing requirements into assisted living and reflects back on the Los Angeles fires in January 2025. It will further attempt to get DSS staff to coordinate with local agencies and departments emergency procedures and disaster coordination. The deadline for Governor Newsom to sign pending legislation is less than two weeks from the date of this newsletter. Some legislation may “just become law” because the governor did nothing—no signature, no veto. The Sacramento Bee wrote there was a final legislative push of bills before the passage deadline. Many of the bills were “climate” and “energy” focused, and some bills were passed to place “guardrails” on law enforcement (“No Secret Police Act”). The Bee stated the bills lacked “transparency” because of the rush to beat the September 12 deadline.