Initial and Renewal Administrator Courses!
National Care Professionals Institute is approved to teach the 80-hour RCFE initial administrator training and continues to teach 40-hours of approved RCFE and ARF administrator renewal courses with online and live streaming courses. Get BRN and NHA credits, too. Carlos Rojo, MBA and Kallie Rojo, Ph.D. have online caregiver courses in English and Spanish and teach first aid and CPR training. Check out their required workplace violence prevention plan. You can call NCPI at (619) 322-9578 for information or register or go to www.nationalcareprofessionals.com.
Mike has facility resources on his website
Go to https://rfce4you.com/product-category/products-and-services/ and check out Mike’s products and services to keep your facility up to date with the growing number of state laws and regulations. This includes the mandated regulation subscription service, emergency disaster plan, dementia plan of operation and more. Our RCFE initial application is now on sale!
Liability and Worker’s Compensation Insurance
Willy Halle has retired, and he has appointed Patrick Perlas as his Broker of Record for Willy’s existing accounts. Perlas Insurance has over 34 years of experience providing services to the healthcare industry. Willy will continue to provide insurance services to any new owners or licensees for liability, workers compensation and property through the Perlas Group. Willy will also assist all current clients with their 2025 renewals to make the transition as smoothly as possible. Call Willy at (760) 835-1884 or email him at willyhalle@gmail.com. Patrick can be reached at (818) 468-4017 or emailed at jpatrick@perlasinsurance.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
A couple of days ago, DSS released a one-sentence update to the RCFE Title 22 to reflect a revised resident right for elderly: A resident has a right “To request, refuse, or discontinue a service.” This was in response to the passage of SB1406 in 2024 and DSS claimed it did not need permission to make this change because it did not change the actual sentence from the law. Only page 139.17 added the one sentence to the list of rights.
When California is “broke,” or perhaps it could be said the state is just a bit short of money, many legislative bills are placed into a “suspense file” because a budget appropriation—money—is required. When there is no money or not enough of it, the bill cannot advance without the government allocating or appropriating money. The current status of SB518, the “reparations to descendants of enslaved persons,” is sitting in the appropriations committee suspense file. It can be “emancipated” if the state comes into a rush of money.
CalMatters, a nonprofit newsroom that covers California issues, reported that more than 100 bills were moved into the suspense file from both the Senate and the Assembly appropriation committees. “If history is any guide,” CalMatters said, “between a quarter to a third of those bills will be killed next month. Most bills die behind the scenes.” August has a day known as “suspense day” in which bills are either released from suspense or are moved back into committee. The taxpayer might be interested if expensive bills are removed from the file.
Rent control protections for ARFs and RCFEs from cities, counties and the state could be under treat as the Health & Safety Code is under threat from SB433, “theRCFE assisted living waiver rental rate protection bill.” It continues to be debated in legislative committees. Its premise is to “limit the amount that RCFEs can charge to residents enrolled in Medi-Cal and even more specifically, the assisted living waiver program. Because RCFEs generally do not accept Medi-Cal and Congress voted to cut benefits to illegals and others that do not qualify, what is the real purpose of the bill? The appropriation for the Medi-Cal (Medicaid) funding into the program has apparently hit a blackhole. Was money allocated for the state’s Medi-Cal program to fund housing welfare recipients? The Department of Health Care Services’ (DHCS) website continues to state new program enrollees should “be aware the number of available slots is limited and there is a waitlist.” The site also states the waitlist number is 11,973 through April 2025, with no further update. That number is the highest in the waiver’s past 5 years. The bill appears to be unnecessary as its provisions are already in place, and a recent analysis of the bill is incomprehensive as to the ultimate purpose of the bill. However, the analyst did state DSS is seeking $2 – $4 million in additional staffing resources “for increased licensing workload” but DHCS did not provide its projected expenses. A further failure of the state was not expanding the accessibility to the program beyond 16 counties.
Watch for SB434 to be released from submission. The legislature has been eagerly wanting RCFEs to give a 90-day eviction notice to residents based upon “tenure” or length of stay.
SB435, the “alternative backup source of power,” is dead, State Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) has not been doing too well with her attack, uh, bills, related to RCFEs.
Top of Form SB582 by Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles, Ventura) was amended 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.