Senior Citizens' Issues

Seniors' Legislation

Seniors' Legislation

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SB 18 (Oropeza-D) Elder or dependent adult abuse
Increases the maximum fines for specified elder abuse offenses upon a second or subsequent conviction.
Chapter 25, Statutes of 2009

SB 91 (Correa-D) Income taxes: designated contributions: senior citizens
Extends the California Fund for Senior Citizens voluntary contribution/check-off designation on the personal income tax return to 1/1/15.
Chapter 29, Statutes of 2009

SB 117 (Corbett-D) Adult day health care services: eligibility criteria
Extends the deadline by which the Department of Health Care Services is required to establish a new Medi-Cal rate reimbursement methodology for adult day health care services, from 8/1/10 to 8/1/12.
Chapter 165, Statutes of 2009

SB 303 (Alquist-D) Nursing facility residents: informed consent
Enacts the Nursing Facility Resident Informed Consent Protection Act of 2009, which establishes the right of a resident of a skilled nursing or intermediate care facility to receive information material relative to the decision to accept or refuse any treatment or procedure, including the administration of psychotherapeutic drugs. Codifies existing regulations requiring attending physicians to obtain informed consent after providing specified material information.
Vetoed

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.
(In Senate Public Safety Committee)

SB 660 (Wolk-D) Reverse mortgages
Imposes a duty of honesty, good faith, and fair dealing on any lender, broker, person, or entity who recommends the purchase of a reverse mortgage to a borrower in anticipation of financial gain, and requires the lender to provide a specified checklist to a mortgage loan applicant prior to their mandatory counseling session. That checklist must be signed by both the counselor and prospective borrower and returned to the lender prior to the approval of a loan application.
(On Senate Unfinished Business File)

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.
(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.
(In Senate Appropriations Committee)

SB 781 (Leno-D) Eviction procedure
Requires a residential care facility for the elderly to include additional information when providing a notice of eviction to a resident, including the reason for the eviction, the effective date of the eviction, and additional information informing the resident of his/her rights regarding evictions.
Chapter 617, Statutes of 2009

SB 2XXX* (Ducheny-D) Senior nutrition program
Increases funding by $1.9 million to the Department of Aging for Senior Nutrition Home Delivered meals.
Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009-10, Third Extraordinary Session

SB 8XXX* (Ducheny-D) Senior Citizens' Property Tax Deferral: Budget Trailer bill
Suspends the Senior Citizens' Property Tax Deferral Program.
Chapter 4, Statutes of 2009-10, Third Extraordinary Session

SCR 28 (Correa-D) Senior Volunteer Month
Declares May 2009 to be Senior Volunteer Month to honor the contributions of California's senior volunteers.
Resolution Chapter 39, Statutes of 2009

AB 123 (Portantino-D) Housing for elderly or disabled persons
Exempts from the Department of Social Services licensing two additional types of housing: residences covered by the low income housing tax credit and Section 8 subsidized housing.
Chapter 82, Statutes of 2009

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 those terms are defined.
(In Assembly Aging and Long Term Care Committee)

AB 215 (Feuer-D) Skilled nursing facilities: ratings
Requires skilled nursing facilities to post, in accordance with specified requirements, the overall facility rating information determined by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Chapter 420, Statutes of 2009

AB 303 (Beall-D) Medi-Cal: designated public hospitals
Allows designated public hospitals to receive supplemental Medi-Cal reimbursement from the Construction and Renovation Reimbursement Program for new capital projects to meet state seismic safety deadlines for which plans have been submitted to the state after 1/1/07, and before 12/31/11.
Chapter 428, Statutes of 2009

AB 324 (Beall-D) Aging: Elder Economic Security Standard Index
Requires Area Agencies on Aging to utilize the Elder Index in their four-year plans, and requires the Department of Aging to include the Elder Index in the four-year State Plan and review Area Agencies on Aging area plans for inclusion of the Elder Index.
Vetoed

AB 329 (Feuer-D) Reverse mortgages
Amends California reverse mortgage law to strengthen existing counseling and cross-selling provisions, and requires lenders to provide the borrower with a checklist prior to counseling that highlights the risks and alternatives to reverse mortgages.
Chapter 236, Statutes of 2009

AB 389 (Saldana-D) Long-term care insurance
Modifies California long-term care insurance rate oversight law to allow the Department of Insurance to monitor the rate increases of older long-term care policies and to assure that adequate premium dollars are going to benefits rather than the insurance company. Provides flexibility to the Department to use its own qualified actuaries in addition to contracted outside professionals to review long-term care rates.
Chapter 101, Statutes of 2009

AB 392* (Feuer-D) Long-term health care facilities
Appropriates $1.6 million from the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account to the Department of Aging for local ombudsman programs.
Chapter 102, Statutes of 2009

AB 407 (Beall-D) Continuing care contracts: retirement communities: closure
Imposes requirements on continuing care retirement communities in the event of their permanent closure.
Chapter 442, Statutes of 2009

AB 535 (Ammiano-D) Elder death review teams: information requests
Allows an elder death team to request and obtain copies of certificates of death from the local registrar of births and deaths, subject to any fee requirements.
(In Assembly Health Committee)

AB 577 (Bonnie Lowenthal-D) Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly
Allows the Department of Health Care Services to grant exemptions from duplicative requirements to Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly providers.
Chapter 456, Statutes of 2009

AB 762 (Bonnie Lowenthal-D) Residential facilities: bedridden persons
Defines nonambulatory persons in specified facilities relative to fire clearance, and clarifies the requirements for accepting or retaining a resident in a residential care facility for the elderly when that individual needs assistance transferring to and from bed.
Chapter 471, Statutes of 2009

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.
(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.
(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.
(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.
(In Assembly Insurance Committee)

AB 1029 (Blumenfield-D) Mortgages: foreclosure: tax deferral program participants
Prohibits a mortgagee, trustee, or other person authorized to take sale from filing a notice of default based on the failure to pay property taxes prior to 90 days after contacting the trustor or mortgagor, either in person or by telephone, to ascertain if the trustor or mortgagor was a participant in the property tax deferral program established pursuant to the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens Property Tax Postponement Law.
(In Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee)

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 to the Department of Insurance, and leaves with Social Services the oversight and regulation of programs and services provided directly to residents.
(In Senate Human Services Committee)

AB 1169 (Ruskin-D) Elderly care: continuing care contracts
Specifies disclosures required of continuing care retirement community providers in continuing care contracts and annual financial reports.
Chapter 513, Statutes of 2009

AB 1171 (Ammiano-D) Rental property: public entity restriction
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.
(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 five percent 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 Department.
(In Assembly Appropriations Committee)

AB 1433 (Eng-D) Continuing care contracts: retirement communities
Imposes various requirements on a provider with respect to the permanent closure of a continuing care retirement community facility, or a portion thereof, as specified, including providing 100 days' written notice to the Department of Social Services, and affected residents or designated representatives of these residents of the intended date of closure of a facility. Requires a provider, no less than 90 days prior to the closure of a continuing care retirement community facility, or a portion thereof, to provide the Department with a written closure and relocation plan for the facility, containing specified information.
(In Assembly Human Services Committee)

AB 1457 (Davis-D) Long-term health care facilities: admission contracts
Requires a contract for a skilled nursing facility to have an attachment that is placed before any other attachment that discloses the name of the owner and licensee of the facility and the name and contact information of a single entity that is responsible for all aspects of patient care and the operation of the facility.
Chapter 532, Statutes of 2009

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

AJR 6 (Beall-D) Elder Economic Security Standard Index
Memorializes the President and the Congress of the United States to ensure economic security for all elders by taking several actions, including ensuring that federal policies and programs enable all elders and their families to meet their basic needs and using the Elder Economic Security Standard Index to modernize all federal poverty measures and guidelines. Recalculates the number and demographic profile of elders whose basic needs are not being met, and evaluates the impact of public supports and any current or new federal initiatives to help elders age in place.
Resolution Chapter 92, Statutes of 2009

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