Senior Citizens' Issues

Seniors' Legislation

Seniors' Legislation

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SB 38* (Alquist-D) Seniors: emergency services
Requires the California Highway Patrol, in consultation with local law enforcement officials, to develop a uniform system for addressing situations involving missing persons who are elderly and have an impaired mental state. Implementation of any new duties to local law enforcement will be contingent upon receiving federal funding.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

SB 344 (Strickland-R) Crimes against elders and dependent adults
Makes it a crime to knowingly engage in exploitation of, or exerting criminal undue influence upon, an elder or dependent adult in order to acquire possession or control of an interest in funds or property of the elder or dependent adult.
(Died in Senate Public Safety Committee)

SB 660 (Wolk-D) Seniors: reverse mortgages
Provides that any lender, broker, person or entity who recommends the purchase of a reverse mortgage owes the borrower a duty of honesty, good faith, and fair dealing.
(Died in Assembly Business and Professions Committee)

SB 661 (Wolk-D) Residential care facilities for the elderly
Requires that if an admission agreement includes an arbitration agreement, that arbitration agreement must comply with prescribed requirements.
(Died in Senate Judiciary Committee)

SB 687 (Alquist-D) Long-term health care facilities
Prohibits an individual from being refused placement in a long-term health care facility based on the diagnosis of a health-care-associated infection or a positive test for the presence of an organism, and requires the facility to implement appropriate infection control measures and to maintain a record of infections. Requires facility staff to receive appropriate education and training with regards to the control of health-care-associated infections.
(Died in Senate Appropriations Committee)

SB 732* (Alquist-D) Long-term care communities: Medi-Cal
Allows the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to continue use provider bulletins related to exemptions from the quality assurance fee for continuing care retirement communities or multilevel retirement facilities issued prior to 7/31/10. Permits DHCS, after 7/31/10, to issue new provider bulletins or similar instructions related to exemptions from the quality assurance fee for continuing care retirement communities or multilevel retirement facilities.
(Died in Assembly Health Committee)

SB 892 (Alquist-D) Residential care facilities for the elderly
Adds serious crimes, such as murder, kidnapping, mayhem, pandering, and exhibiting a deadly weapon, to the list of criminal activities that prohibit a person from being granted an exemption to the current prohibition against becoming licensed by the Department of Social Services as an operator, staff or employee of a residential care facility for the elderly.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

SB 995 (Strickland-R) Housing: condominium conversions
Provides that a stock cooperative or community apartment project for senior citizens, established before the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, that is converting to a condominium, shall not be required to file a condominium plan as part of the documents required to be submitted to the Department of Real Estate.
(Died in Senate Local Government Committee)

SB 998 (Liu-D) Long-term care: assessment and planning
Requires the Department of Health Care Services to work with stakeholders to develop or identify a long-term care assessment tool that would identify an individual's long-term care needs. Also, requires counties to establish a long-term care case management program for persons who are Medi-Cal recipients or enrolled in both Medi-Cal and Medicare and residing in, applying for admission to, or at imminent risk of being placed in a long-term health care facility.
(Died in Senate Appropriations Committee)

SB 1329 (Leno-D) Residential care facilities for the elderly
Requires licensees of residential care facilities for the elderly to notify the Department of Social Services (DSS) and, in some instances, residents and applicants for potential residence, of specified events, in specified instances, and requires DSS to initiate compliance plans, noncompliance conferences, or other appropriate actions upon receipt of the notification.
Vetoed

SB 1416* (Walters-R) Seniors: income tax exemption: housing
Exempts from the definition of "gross income" any gain from the sale of a principal residence for taxpayers over the age of 65.
(Died in Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee)

SB 1430* (Walters-R) Seniors: property tax exemption
Increases the homeowners' exemption from property tax and renters' credit for taxpayers over the age of 62.
(Died in Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee)

SCR 74 (Correa-D) Senior Volunteer Month
Declares May 2010 as Senior Volunteer Month to honor the contributions of California's senior volunteers.
Resolution Chapter 21, Statures of 2010

SJR 20 (Alquist-D) Seniors: sale of principal residence
Urges the Congress and the President of the United States to enact legislation that increases the amount of capital gain that a senior citizen 65 years of age and older and who pays for long-term care costs is allowed to exclude from income, form $250,000 to $500,000, and from $500,000 to $750,000 for joint returns from the sale of the qualifying principal residence of the senior citizen.
Resolution Chapter 57, Statutes of 2010

AB 152 (Carter-D) Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act: disability
Defines "disability" for purposes of the Mello-Granlund Older Californians Act as either a "mental" or "physical disability", as defined.
(Died in Assembly Aging and Long Term Care Committee)

AB 535 (Ammiano-D) Elder death review teams: information requests
Requires 1,100 skilled nursing facilities statewide to increase reporting specificity of patient death data to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and increases the availability of death data to county Elder Death Review Teams statewide.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

AB 768 (Torres-D) Elder abuse
Eliminates the requirement that a person "know or reasonably should know" a victim is an elder or dependent adult when charged with elder abuse, and expands the definition of "elder abuse" to include willfully causing or permitting an elder or dependent adult to sustain any wound or physical or psychological injury.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

AB 885* (Nestande-R) Area agencies on aging and independent living centers
Establishes a continuous appropriation from the Federal Trust Fund to the Department of Aging for the area agencies on aging and to the Department of Rehabilitation for the independent living centers in any year in which the state budget is not enacted by July 1. Authorizes the Department of Finance to reduce the applicable Budget Act allocations by the amount paid pursuant to this bill.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

AB 935 (Feuer-D) Long-term health care facilities
Requires at least half of the funds in the Department of Public Health's State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account and the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account, be used to support local long-term care ombudsman programs administered by the Department of Aging, and requires any remaining funds to be used to protect the health and safety of nursing home residents.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

AB 989 (Block-D) Senior insurance: actions against insurers
Authorizes any person who is harmed as a result of a violation of the senior insurance laws to bring a civil action for compensatory damages and any other remedies otherwise provided by law.
(Died in Assembly Insurance Committee)

AB 1029* (Blumenfield-D) Seniors: taxation: property tax
Re-establishes and modifies the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement program, which was suspended indefinitely in the 2009-10 Budget.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)
A similar bill was AB 1718 (Blumenfield-D) which was vetoed.

AB 1044 (Jones-D) Continuing care retirement communities: contracts
Transfers the oversight and regulation of the finances and contracts of continuing care retirement communities from the Department of Social Services (DSS) to the Department of Insurance, and leaves with DSS the oversight and regulation of programs and services provided directly to residents.
(Died in Senate Human Services Committee)

AB 1171 (Ammiano-D) Seniors: rental property
Defines, for purposes of the Ellis Act, "to go out of business" to mean to discontinue in the business or occupation of being a landlord. Specifies that the rent control system of a public entity may require that the one-year extension applies to all tenancies in the applicable accommodations if a tenant or lessee who is at least 62 years of age or disabled has lived in the accommodations for at least one year prior to the delivery of notice to a public entity and gives the required 60-day notice to the owner. Requires an owner, as applicable in these circumstances, to notify all tenants of the one-year extension.
(Died in Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee)

AB 1259 (Arambula-IN) Area agencies on aging: federal funding allocations
Allows an area agency on aging to carry over, without regard to fiscal year, up to 5% of its annual total baseline allocation under Titles III (nutrition) and VII (elder abuse prevention), of the federal Older Americans Act, and prohibits an area agency from using the carried over funds to expand baseline services and specifies that carryover funds may only be used to fund the purchase of equipment, home and community-based projects approved by the Department of Aging (CDA), or pilot projects approved by the CDA.
(Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee)

AB 1433 (Eng-D) Continuing care contracts: residential temporary relocation
Defines "residential temporary relocation" in the context of continuing care contracts of residents who live in continuing care retirement communities, and establishes related rights, requirements, and procedures.
Chapter 443, Statutes of 2010

AB 1472 (Torrico-D) Medi-Cal: long-term care reimbursement: ratesetting
Requires that labor costs for the Medi-Cal program be determined by facility payroll data, and submitted electronically to the Department of Health Care Services on a quarterly basis, as prescribed.
(Died in Assembly Health Committee)

AB 1593 (Yamada-D) Adult day health care centers
Creates an exemption to the existing Medi-Cal certification moratorium which will allow the opening of two new, publicly-financed, adult day health centers at the William J. "Pete" Knight Veterans Home and the Veterans Home of California, Ventura, contingent on the availability of funds appropriated in the annual Budget Act.
Vetoed

AB 1718 (Blumenfield-D) Seniors: property tax deferment
Establishes the County Deferred Property Tax Program for Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens.
Vetoed
A similar bill was AB 1029 (Blumenfield-D) which died in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 1845 (Gilmore-R) Senior citizens: vehicles: golf carts: operation on highways
Authorizes a local authority, by ordinance or resolution, to permit a senior citizen to operate a golf cart on streets and highways under its jurisdiction that are designated under an ordinance or resolution. Requires the ordinance or resolution to include, among other things, a designation of the highways on which a golf cart may be operated, a requirement that a person desiring to operate a golf cart, as authorized, apply to the local authority for a permit to operate the golf cart and an identification sticker for the golf cart, and a provision prohibiting the operation of a golf cart, as authorized, unless the permit has been issued and the sticker is affixed to the golf cart.
(Died in Assembly Transportation Committee)

AB 2051 (Tran-R) Seniors: emergency services: preparedness
Authorizes the California Emergency Management Agency to prepare, in voluntary cooperation with specific local governmental and nongovernmental entities, a specialized plan to mobilize senior citizens and disabled persons during an emergency or natural disaster.
(Died in Senate Appropriations Committee)

AB 2066 (Jones-D) Seniors: annuity sales
Requires that seniors be provided with specified disclosures before obtaining an annuity, presumptively limits the sale of annuities to seniors in specified circumstances, and limits the surrender penalty that can be charged to seniors.
(Died in Assembly Insurance Committee)

AB 2114 (Beall-D) Aging: Elder Economic Security Standard Index
Defines the Elder Economic Security Standard Index and requires the Department of Aging to report the Index for each service area in its state plan. Requires each area agency on aging is required to use the Index in their service planning.
(Died in Senate Appropriations Committee)

AB 2435 (Bonnie Lowenthal-D) Elder and dependent adult abuse
Requires marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, psychologists, and licensed professional counselors to have training on the recognition and reporting of suspected elder and dependent adult abuse as requirements for licensure.
Chapter 552, Statutes of 2010

AB 2555* (Feuer-D) Aging: ombudsman programs: appropriation
Appropriates $1.6 million from the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account to the Department of Aging to fund its local ombudsman programs.
(Died in Senate Appropriations Committee)

AB 2619 (Block-D) Elder and dependent adult & financial abuse: restitution
Authorizes wage garnishments against defendants convicted of elder or dependent adult financial abuse.
Chapter 64, Statues of 2009

AB 2645* (Chesbro-D) Skilled nursing facilities: mental health reimbursement
Requires, from 7/1/10 to 6/30/12, the reimbursement rate for services in institutions for mental diseases licensed as skilled nursing facilities to be the same as the rates in effect on 7/1/09.
Chapter 554, Statutes of 2010

AB 2717 (Skinner-D) Seniors: insurance: agents and brokers: use
Recasts and clarifies the laws that govern the procedures and criteria that determine the titles or designations that insurance agents and brokers may use to describe themselves in connection with the sale of insurance products to senior citizens.
Chapter 606, Statutes of 2010

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