BOSTON — State Rep. Donald Wong, who represents parts of Saugus and Lynn, was among the supporters of a bill reforming the state’s long-term care system to provide greater protections for patients and additional training for staff.
The bill cleared the state House unanimously on Wednesday, with all 153 legislators advancing the proposal to the state Senate. House Bill 4178, An Act to improve quality and oversight of long-term care, reflects several reforms set forth in a 2020 report filed by the Nursing Facility Task Force, which was tasked with “evaluating ways to ensure the financial stability of skilled nursing facilities; considering the role of skilled nursing facilities within the continuum of elder care services; and addressing current workforce challenges,” Wong’s office said in a statement.
Wong said the bill will help address ongoing staffing shortages at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, and ensure safeguards are in place to prevent the spread of disease and contain outbreaks among patients. A COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home in 2020 led to the deaths of 84 patients.
In light of COVID-19, which hit elderly residents living in long-term care facilities particularly hard, the bill requires all such facilities in the state to develop a comprehensive plan to respond to outbreaks. The plan must “include clear policies for testing protocols; isolating infected and at-risk patients; notifying residents, their families, visitors, and staff about any contagious disease outbreaks; implementing outbreak response measures; and notifying public-health officials of any outbreaks that occur,” the statement said.
The bill also gives the attorney general’s office increased ability to crack down on long-term care facilities found to have abused or neglected patients by raising financial penalties five-fold and expanding the statute of limitations governing when the attorney general can bring civil charges from two years to four. Financial penalties included in the legislation vary from case to case, with different fees set out for cases where there is no bodily injury, where there is bodily injury, where there is sexual assault or serious bodily injury, or where the patient dies. Previously set at $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, and $50,000, respectively, those penalties would be increased to $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, and $250,000 if the bill is enacted.
The legislation also enhances the Department of Public Health’s ability to monitor long-term care facilities and take action when violations occur, the statement said, including giving the department the power to “limit, restrict, suspend, or revoke a license for cause and to appoint temporary managers to help bring facilities into compliance with acceptable standards.” Each long-term care facility would also be subject to at least one “resident-centered” inspection a year to gather information about the services it provides and its compliance with state and federal regulations.
In the statement, Wong also noted the provisions in the bill for supporting employees at long-term care facilities, with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services directed to establish and administer a number of grant programs for workforce training. The grants can be used to cover tuition costs, childcare and/or transportation stipends, licensing costs, or general stipends for program participants.
The bill also calls for the creation of a task force to “study and issue recommendations for addressing acute-care hospital throughput challenges and the impact of persistent delays in discharging patients from acute to post-acute care settings,” according to the statement.
And, the bill calls for MassHealth to study the cost and feasibility of adjusting eligibility requirements, in an effort to speed up the process by which patients get determinations regarding their eligibility for care.
Should the Senate take up and pass the bill, it would move to Gov. Maura Healey’s desk for final approval.
