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