Bill Text: CT SB00278 | 2016 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: An Act Concerning Nursing Home Facility Minimum Staffing Levels.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-02-26 - Public Hearing 03/03 [SB00278 Detail]

Download: Connecticut-2016-SB00278-Introduced.html

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General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 278
February Session, 2016		LCO No. 1765
		*01765_______HS_*
Referred to Committee on HUMAN SERVICES
Introduced by:
(HS)

AN ACT CONCERNING NURSING HOME FACILITY MINIMUM STAFFING LEVELS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) As used in this section, (1) "nursing home facility" means a chronic and convalescent nursing home, and (2) "nursing staff" means registered and licensed practical nurses licensed pursuant to chapter 378 of the general statutes and nurse's aides registered pursuant to chapter 378a of the general statutes.

(b) On and after October 1, 2016, each nursing home facility shall have sufficient nursing staff available on site to maintain a daily minimum staffing ratio of not less than two and three-tenths nursing staff hours per resident.

(c) If any nursing home facility experiences increased costs or expenditures due to compliance with the provisions of this section, the Department of Social Services shall adjust such facility's Medicaid rates and provide payment for any such costs or expenditures within a reasonable period of time and retroactive to the date of such increased costs or expenditures.

(d) The Commissioner of Public Health shall adopt or amend regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, to implement the provisions of this section. Such regulations shall include, but need not be limited to, (1) the establishment of a requirement for nursing home facilities to record the number of nursing staff hours available on site to provide direct care to residents, and (2) a definition of the term "direct care".

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2016) (a) For purposes of this section: (1) "Full-time" means forty hours per week; (2) "qualified social worker" means a person who holds at least a bachelor's degree in social work from a college or university that was accredited by the Council on Social Work Education at the time of his or her graduation and has at least one year social work experience in a health care facility; (3) "nursing home facility" has the same meaning as provided in section 1 of this act; and (4) "social work designee" means a person with at least an associate's degree in a human services field or anyone employed in a nursing home facility as a social work designee as of January 1, 1989.

(b) Nursing home facilities shall provide the following minimum number of qualified social worker or social work designee hours per week, in the aggregate, for the period commencing with the effective date of this section until September 30, 2020: (1) Ten hours for one to twenty licensed beds; (2) twenty hours for twenty-one to forty licensed beds; (3) thirty hours for forty-one to sixty licensed beds; (4) forty hours for sixty-one to eighty licensed beds; and (5) ten additional hours for every additional twenty licensed beds or fraction thereof over eighty licensed beds.

(c) On and after October 1, 2020, nursing home facilities shall provide the following minimum number of qualified social worker or social work designee hours per week, in the aggregate: (1) Ten hours for every fifteen licensed beds, and (2) one full-time qualified social worker for every sixty licensed beds.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	from passage	New section
Sec. 2	July 1, 2016	New section

Statement of Purpose:

To ensure sufficient nursing and social work staff is available to provide care to nursing home facility residents.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]