California Watch has an an excellent article about California nursing homes that have received millions of dollars under the Nursing Home Quality Care Act of 2004 to pay better wages and hire more staff only to cut back on both.
This video was recently shown on Capitol Hill to help promote passage of the Elder Justice Act.
Congressman Joe Sestak from Pennsylvania reports that H.R. 448, The Elder Abuse Victims Act, has passed. Congressman Sestak introduced the bill to improve the Department of Justice Agency’s response to elder abuse issues and better grant funding for advocacy groups.
The text of HR 448 can be found the GovTrack here.
State Representative Mark Meadows introduced legislation to create the "Mozelle Alert."
The Michigan House of Representatives has passed legislation proposing the creation of an “Amber Alert” style system to notify the public abut missing seniors. The system to be known as a "Mozelle Alert," is named in honor of Estelle Mozelle Pierce, who died after wandering [...]
Time has an article about the new changes to New York’s power of attorney laws. Also look at this synopsis of the law by attorney David Goldfarb.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed a bill increasing elder abuse penalties.
The law will take effect Jan. 1, 2010. Senate Bill 18 increased California fines from $6,000 to $10,000 for those found guilty of placing an elder or dependent adult in situations where great bodily harm or death is likely. Fines for placing an elder [...]
The Des Moines Register is reporting that “nursing homes throughout the country are earning hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bonuses despite violations of basic health-and-safety standards.” The paper also learned “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which approves and helps fund each of the bonus programs, does not track the payments. Currently, [...]
The West Virginia legislature has passed a bill revising the Code of West Virginia to provide more protection from abuse and neglect for seniors.
§61-2-29. Abuse or neglect of incapacitated adult; abuse or neglect of elder person; misappropriation or misuse of assets or funds of elder person; misappropriation or misuse of assets or funds of [...]
On February 26th Rep. Linda T. Sanchez (D-CA) introduced bill H.R. 1237: Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act of 2009. The bill would amend Chapter 1 of title 9 of the United States Code to, among other things:
“(b) Invalidity of Pre-Dispute Arbitration Agreements- A pre-dispute arbitration agreement between a long-term care facility and a resident [...]
Tracking federal legislation is easy with GovTrack. This description is from their web page:
“GovTrack.us is an independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology. You’ll find here the status of U.S. federal legislation, voting records in the [...]