CAHF State Legislative Affairs

Legislative advocacy is one of the primary benefits of CAHF membership and one of the most important activities in which we engage on behalf of long-term care facilities in the state. CAHF has a proven track record of promoting and protecting the long-term care profession's interests and practices through aggressive lobbying, grass roots campaigns, and fighting for policies that support access to quality long-term care services at the local, state and federal levels.  


Look in this section for information on hot legislative topics, CAHF-sponsored bills and other priority bills which may affect your business, finding your state legislator, grassroots activities and other links of interest. Stay informed and make a difference!

      

Staff

Yvonne Choong, Director, Government Affairs

(916) 441-6400

Email:

cahf-governmentaffairsteam@cahf.org


Latest News

CAHF Legislative Update

Updated 3/16/2023


AB 48 (Aguiar-Curry) – Nursing Home Facility Resident Informed Consent.  This bill is an amended re-introduction of AB 1809 (Aguiar-Curry) which was vetoed in 2022.  As originally introduced, AB 1809 would have imposed a new and onerous informed consent process on facilities administering psychotherapeutic medications to residents and imposed new civil liability penalties. After extensive negotiations with the author and the sponsor, AB 1809 was amended to remove the civil liability provisions, limit the categories of medication and establish a process for the California Association for Long Term Care Medicine (CALTCM) to develop a model consent form and provide education and training prior to implementation of the bill.  CAHF had a neutral position on AB 1809 and has not taken a position on AB 48.



AB 486 (Kalra) - Long-term health facilities: citation appeals. This bill would delete the civil action provisions for contesting a class “AA” or “A” citation under these provisions, and would make those citation classifications subject to the administrative proceedings applicable for contesting a class “B” citation.


AB 488 (Nguyen) - Medi-Cal: skilled nursing facilities: vision loss. This bill would require that DHCS WQIP measures and milestones, used to calculate SNF incentive payments, include program access, staff training, and capital improvement measures aimed at addressing the needs of skilled nursing facility residents with vision loss.  


AB 1309 (Reyes) - Long-term health care facilities: admission contracts. This bill would require the involuntary discharge notice to the resident to include specific facts to permit determination of the date, place, witnesses, and circumstances concerning the reason for the transfer or discharge. Because a violation of these requirements by a long-term health care facility would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.


AB 1537 (Wood) - Skilled nursing facilities: direct care spending requirement. This bill would require a SNF to expend at least 85% of its non-federal health-related revenue on direct patient care, including rent/lease costs and professional liability insurance.  This is a re-introduction of AB 2079 which was passed out of the Legislature in 2022 and vetoed by the Governor.  CAHF had no position on AB 2079 due to the addition of requested amendments.  


SB 302 (Stern) - Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act or Ryan’s Law. The Compassionate Access to Medical Cannabis Act which requires specified types of health care facilities to allow a terminally ill patient’s use of medicinal cannabis within the health care facility, subject to certain restrictions. This bill would expand the definition of a patient to apply to a patient who is over 65 years of age with a chronic disease.


SB 525 (Durazo) - Minimum wage: health care workers. This bill would require a health care worker minimum wage of $25 per hour for hours worked in covered health care employment, as defined, subject to adjustment, as prescribed.  In 2022, CAHF proposed the “Drive to $25” initiative which supported a $25 minimum wage for CNAs if the state provided the funding in Medi-Cal.  This bill is much more expansive and does not include a funding mechanism.   


Hospital and Skilled Nursing Facility COVID-19 Worker Retention Payments


The enacted 2022-23 budget included a Worker Retention Payment initiative for healthcare workers that would provide up to $1,500 per worker from the state.  The state will provide funding to employers who would pass-through the funding to employees with $1,000 per worker with and an additional $500 if the funding is matched by the employer through a bonus payment. Payments are expected to be distributed to providers by late March 2023.


Program information is available on the DHCS website.