LCO No. 5963 1 of 2
General Assembly Raised Bill No. 1079
January Session, 2019
LCO No. 5963
Referred to Committee on HUMAN SERVICES
Introduced by:
(HS)
AN ACT CONCERNING NU RSING HOME FACILITY MINIMUM
STAFFING LEVELS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) As used in this section, 1
(1) "nursing home facility" means a chronic and convalescent nursing 2
home, and (2) "nursing staff" means licensed practical nurses, licensed 3
pursuant to chapter 378 of the general statutes, and registered nurse's 4
aides, registered pursuant to chapter 378a of the general statutes. 5
(b) On and after October 1, 2019, each nursing home facility shall 6
have sufficient nursing staff available on site to maintain a daily 7
minimum staffing ratio of not less than two and three-tenths nursing 8
staff hours per resident. 9
(c) If any nursing home facility experiences increased costs or 10
expenditures due to compliance with the provisions of this section, the 11
Department of Social Services shall adjust such facility's Medicaid rates 12
and provide payment for any such costs or expenditures within a 13
reasonable period of time and retroactive to the date of such increased 14 Raised Bill No. 1079
LCO No. 5963 2 of 2
costs or expenditures. 15
(d) The Commissioner of Public Health shall adopt or amend 16
regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the 17
general statutes, to implement the provisions of this section. Such 18
regulations shall include, but need not be limited to, (1) use of data 19
collected by each facility pursuant to federal staff data collection 20
requirements as documentation of the number of nursing staff hours 21
available on site to provide direct care to residents, and (2) a definition 22
of the term "direct care". 23
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
Statement of Purpose:
To establish a minimum staffing level for nursing home services.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline,
except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is
not underlined.]