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.
Mike has your 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.
Industry Updates and Legislation
The California Policy Center said the following: “For anyone operating a business in California—small, medium, or large—the experiences of the last twenty years have been challenging, and it gets worse every year. California’s regulatory environment, its high taxes and exorbitant fees, and the overall cost of doing business are the toughest in the nation. Many businesses have voted with their feet, moving their operations to more welcoming business environments.” If following bills get enacted it will cause many to flee the state because of the “regulatory environment, its high taxes and exorbitant fees, and the overall cost of doing business.”
It is estimated that if California’s proposed 2025-2026 budget is enacted it will place California in the red by at least $12 billion. Despite this projected deficit, SB518, the Descendants of Enslaved Persons: Reparations, could become law and cost state taxpayers millions of dollars in paying the ancestors of slaves living in California a reparation or money to “make amends for a wrong.” The actual cost of reparations and the overall cost of administering the program is unknown. If adopted into law, a new state task force would be created to include a Genealogy Division, Property Reclamation Division, an Education and Outreach Division, and a Legal Affairs Division to investigate if an applicant for reparations had ancestors dispossessed of land or property when the United States consisted of 13 colonies. California was never a colony. If an applicant is found to have lost land or property through an enslaved ancestor, then California would compensate the individual for the value of the land or property. Since California was not a “slave state,” and would not join the Union unless it could opt out of being a slave state, who, in California can prove their ancestors were dispossessed of their land in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia? According to Marquette University School of Law, slavery in the United States was “effectively ended with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 6, 1865, following the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, which declared freedom for slaves in Confederate states.” The reparations, according to the bill, would be dependent upon the amount of money the Legislature appropriates and how much “public gifting funds” are received. The bill was authored by Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego), (619) 688-6700.
SB433, the bill to amend the long-established Health and Safety Code preventing the imposition of rent controls upon RCFEs, is an active bill and nearing legislative passage. The bill would prohibit an RCFE accepting residents on the assisted living waiver program and, thus Medi-Cal (Medicaid), from charging a resident a rate that would include the resident’s SSI/SSP personal and incidental needs allowance or P&I. The current amount for P&I is only $179, and facilities are already prohibited from using that amount as a charge for resident services except to offset costs for a private room. However, the SSI rate is for “nonmedical” care. RCFEs are slowly being allowed to provide a level of medical care—accepting restricted and prohibited health conditions. Could the P&I money be used for any facility-rendered medical care? Could California’s continued financial woes also be a problem? SB433 was proposed by Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Fremont), (510) 794-3900.
AB508, proposed by Assembly Member Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Napa), will create staffing ratios for RCFEs. It will specifically require RCFEs to calculate a daily direct care ratio, maintain 12 months of records of its direct care ratios, and disclose its direct care ratios to residents, especially when implementing a rate increase, and inform the public of the rate increase. A legislative analyst said, “to disclose their daily staffing levels [is] a key indicator of care quality.” The same analyst also made the comparison to skilled nursing staffing levels resulting in “better quality of care…with improvements in residents’ outcomes.” That explains why the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform have sponsored the bill. A facility would exclude ancillary staff from its staffing ratios although some ancillary staff members participate in providing basic services i.e., housekeeping. Ms. Aguiar-Curry can be reached at (916) 319-2004.
SB435 was amended to require RCFEs licensed for 16 or more residents to have an “alternative backup source of power” starting in 2028, not 2027, “to protect residents’ health and safety for no fewer than 72 hours during any type of power outage.” The majority of facilities would not be affected. If passed, Health and Safety Code section 1569.695 would be amended and 1569.694 would be added. Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward), the bill’s author, can be reached at (510) 794-3900.
SB434, also proposed by Senator Wahab, would amend Health and Safety Code 1569.683 and add 1569.684 related to resident evictions. It would require up to a 90-day eviction notice solely based upon a resident’s length of stay in the facility. This lengthy eviction notice would also be required when a resident fails to pay facility fees and also includes a court appearance. Specific information would be required to be included in an eviction notice such as the licensee’s “reasonable efforts to create a safe discharge plan” such as a list of the resident’s post-eviction needs, goals, and preferences, with a list of discharge locations that meet specified criteria, such as being financially practicable for the resident. The ombudsman gets a copy of the notice. A facility could be fined if it refused a resident’s admission during the 90-day notice of eviction given by a different facility.
SB582 was proposed by Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles, Ventura) who serves as the Chair of Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management. Currently, skilled nursing facilities are required to have emergency disaster plans developed “with the advice and assistance of county or regional and local planning offices.” This bill would amend Health and Safety Code 1569.695 to force all RCFEs to seek the same assistance in developing emergency disaster plans then provide those plans to the medical health operational area coordinator for “local disaster coordination.”
Mike and Robin highly recommend Boris & Amanda Palomino and their program on “How to Build an RCFE” See their website: https://palominoseniorliving.com/calendar