Committee Approves Nursing Home Reform Measure

SACRAMENTO —  A bill aimed at reforming California’s nursing home industry passed a key legislative test Wednesday by clearing the Health and Human Services Committee on a 6-2 vote.

The measure, AB 1731, would increase state civil penalties against nursing homes for wrongdoing from a maximum of $25,000 to as much as $100,000, while providing bonuses to exemplary homes. The bill is Gov. Gray Davis’ alternative to a reform bill he vetoed last year.

Proponents say the new bill takes them a step closer to real reforms. Opponents, however, say it is weak and will do little for the burdened industry.

About 40 members of Service Employees International Union donned purple T-shirts to demonstrate their solidarity with the measure, being spearheaded by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco).

“These workers are concerned about this issue and are willing to lose a day’s pay to have a say in it,” said Tim McCormick, assistant director of the union’s convalescent division.

Nursing home worker Octavia Beed said that she bathes, feeds and tends to 10 people daily, and that this bill would pressure nursing homes to hire more staff.

Beth Capell, lobbyist for Service Employees International Union, said that even though the union supports the bill, more staffing requirements are needed. She said the union will keep pressure up next week to amend the bill to increase the minimum required nurse hours per patient from 3.2 to 4.1 per day.

“Simply put: More staff, better service,” she said.

The bill now goes to the Legislature’s conference committee, where it may be amended and merged with a second nursing home bill, and then on to either the Assembly Appropriations Committee or the floor.

But Patricia McGinnis, executive director for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, criticized a provision in AB 1731 that requires an independent physician to review any allegation against a nursing home before the state issues a citation.

“What’s the use of increasing the fine when [the bill makes it] more difficult to [issue] a citation?” McGinnis asked. “This is not nursing home reform.”

Despite the rows of workers determined to testify, the long hearing outlasted all but the union’s lobbyist.

Earlier in the day, during a morning news conference, the same nursing home workers urged the governor to approve a 7.5% raise for them recommended by both houses of the Legislature during budget deliberations. Capell pointed out that, because the cost of health benefits are taken off the top, for many workers that would result in only about 30 cents more an hour.