• The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act would improve access to information about how well nursing home providers staff their facilities; make other quality-related information available to the public; make it easier for family members to file complaints about poor care and protect them from retaliation; develop a model for independent government monitoring of nursing home chains; and ensure better care of the 70 percent of nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s and other dementia by requiring pre-employment training in dementia management and abuse prevention.

• The Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act would help states develop programs to conduct national screening and criminal background checks on employees who work in long-term care facilities (or for other types of long-term care providers, including home health agencies), and who have direct access to residents or patients.

• The CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports) Act This provision, originally introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy, would create a national insurance program to finance non-medical services and supports for people with disabilities who want to remain at home. The program would be financed by voluntary payroll deductions and would pay a benefit to individuals who had contributed to the program and subsequently needed assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing or dressing. This provision is designed to permit more people to remain at home and to reduce the burden on state and federal Medicaid programs that now pay billions of dollars of home and community based and nursing home care.

• The Community First Choice Act This proposal would create incentives for states to provide home and community based care to people who would otherwise need to enter a nursing home by providing additional federal Medicaid reimbursement for these services for five years. The Act would also require states to collect data regarding how they currently provide home and community based care, how much they spend on that care, and whether consumers have access to non-institutional options when they require long term care.
• The Elder Justice Act Portions of this act mandate reporting of crimes against residents in long-term care facilities; provide for adequate notice and relocation planning for residents when nursing homes close; and improve training of long-term care ombudsmen who investigate resident complaints as well as addressing numerous other issues related to abuse of the elderly.
• The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act  would prohibit nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long term care providers from including provisions in their admissions contracts that require consumers to agree to mandatory, binding arbitration instead of litigation if a problem arises.
   

  ADVOCACY ALERT! TAKE ACTION NOW: Please contact Senators Levin and Stabenow and your Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives to tell them you support these important provisions!