First aid, caregiver courses are available from Carlos and Kallie Rojo at National Care Professionals Institute. They have a great workplace violence prevention plan and offer first aid and CPR training in English and Spanish. Look for their soon-to-be launched 20 hours of online RCFE/ARF courses and their caregiver courses! https://nationalcareprofessionals.com/.
Get a FREE review of your liability insurance premiums from Willy Halle, an RCFE administrator and insurance broker. He will do a free review of your workers’ compensation rates (soon to go up) and your liability insurance costs! RCFEs must have liability insurance, and all facilities must have worker’s compensation (WC). It is a violation of state law to not have WC, and RCFEs can face DSS-imposed fines for failing to have liability insurance. Finding the best insurance carrier will save you money! Call Willy at (760) 835-1884, to get your free, no-obligation quote on liability and worker’s compensation insurance.
Get Your Title 22 subscription service! Mike and Robin’s 2025 Title 22 and 2025 Health and Safety Code subscription service is the most affordable in the industry, just $29, AND it self-renews! You are not charged again. Our regulation subscription service is found at: https://rfce4you.com/product/rcfe-subscription-service-to-title-22-and-health-safety-code/.
Industry Updates and Legislation
Will another ruling by the Biden-Harris White House be implemented upon facilities participating in the Assisted Living Waiver Program? The ruling is that all providers that accept Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) must “allocate 80% of payments to direct care worker pay.” The fancy label for the ruling is Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services.” It is alleged to “improve the quality of caregiving jobs,” according to a Biden White House fact sheet. The rulings are always shrouded in utopian assumptions. “Higher wages will likely reduce turnover, leading to higher quality of care for older adults and people with disabilities across the nation, as studies have shown,” the White House post said. States also will be required to be more transparent in how much they pay for services and how they set those rates, according to the White House.
A recent court settlement in US District Court for the Central District of California may force RCFEs into mandatory staffing hours. The class action lawsuit against Sunrise Senior Living was given full court approval two weeks ago for a settlement of $18.2 million in damages. The suit alleged Sunrise had engaged in “deceptive staffing practices.” The complaint accused Sunrise of falsely representing its services by using its admission agreement to claim each resident would be provided care services based upon a resident assessment. The lawsuit claimed corporate staffing policies and procedures were not sufficient to meet resident needs despite the payment by residents for those services and that placed residents at “substantial risk.” Similar suits have resulted in settlements against Emeritus, Atria Senior Living, Oakmont Senior Living and Aegis. Paul A. Gordon and Tammy Vu, who authored the brief, said assisted living communities are likely to continue to encounter lawsuits brought by individuals and as a class for inadequate staffing.
The US Department of Labor has stepped up its efforts to penalize employers for hiring “undocumented workers,” aka illegals. The healthcare industry, more specifically assisted living, is a big target for this federal crackdown. The “shortage” of staff is being used as an excuse for “hiring” illegal workers, but how does a facility report its payroll for an illegal? Illegals are paid cash, and that is just as illegal as hiring the undocumented worker. Many facilities are fearing Trump’s promise to deport illegal workers because a 2022 report found that many facilities have “hired” those illegal workers.
Late last year, Newsom made changes within the state’s care division. Jennifer Troia was appointed as the new Director of the Department of Social Services replacing Kimberley Johnson who was promoted to the secretary of Health & Human Services.
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) wants to introduce legislation that would allow the federal government to have enforceable oversight in the nation’s assisted living industry. The legislature is not likely to pass before the new Congress is seated. Dubbed “ASSISTED” (Advancing Supportive Services, Information Sharing, and Transparency for Evidence-informed Decisions) it would “help consumers and providers have information on ‘best practices’ in assisted living with the goal of helping set expectations and improving quality and value,” according to organizations that have reviewed the legislation. This bill would create a “council” to recommend those “best practices” in assisted living and create a “voluntary” mechanism for facilities to self-report performance related to what the council recommended. How long do you think reporting would stay “voluntary?” Frequently, appointments to government councils are political and rarely involve experts on care.