AB1629 Frommer !OPPOSE! "Nursing Home Rate Reform"

The State Council of Californians for Disability Rights Voted to Oppose the gut and amend AB1629. We want REAL reform with protections for the residents of nursing homes! We oppose the proposed [withdrawn] Tort Reforms, we oppose rate reform that does not include staffing wages, staffing levels and provisions for care for the residents.Laura Williams, PresidentCalifornians for Disability Rights.


!UPDATE! Press Release:
Non-partisan Legislative Analyst's office reports that AB 1629 Could Cost the State Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
Date:8/26/2004
LAO Report Slams Last-Minute Nursing Home Bill: AB 1629 Could Cost the State Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, says Legislative Analyst’s Office

SACRAMENTO—The California Legislative Analyst’s Office issued an analysis today of AB 1629 (Frommer), the gut-and-amend bill currently being rushed through the Legislature. The LAO report finds that AB 1629 could significantly increase the State’s General Fund obligations.

Among other things, the LAO report concludes that:

“The expiration of the quality assurance fee would result in the loss of the state’s ability to leverage federal funds, thereby resulting in increased General Fund spending on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars, in order to continue to fund prior-year rate increases.”

--and—

“Establishing a rate floor [not a ceiling] for skilled nursing facilities limits the Legislature’s flexibility to achieve savings by reducing rates for Medi-Cal providers.”


“This report makes clear what AARP and others have been saying all along,” said AARP California Legislative Director Lupe De La Cruz. “AB 1629 is quite simply a money grab on the part of the nursing home industry and SEIU. The LAO report shows that this ‘blank check’ for nursing homes would be paid for by California taxpayers.”

AARP has strongly opposed AB 1629 on the grounds that guarantees profits to nursing homes, without requiring that any funds be spent on patient care. “As far as AARP is concerned,” said De La Cruz, “the top priority of the State of California should be the welfare of the people in the beds, not the profits of the nursing home operators and investors.”

The complete LAO report can found at www.aarp.org/ca.

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