BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 364
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 17, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                 AB 364 (Ian Calderon) - As Amended:  April 1, 2013 

          Policy Committee:                              Human  
          ServicesVote:7 - 0 

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill requires Department of Social Services (DSS) Community  
          Care Licensing Division (CCLD) inspectors to make unannounced  
          visits to most licensed facilities (with the exception of  
          licensed child care facilities) at least once every two years.   
          Current law requires an unannounced visit once every five years.  


           FISCAL EFFECT  

          On-going costs in excess of $7 million (GF) to DSS due to the  
          increased workload. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Purpose  . The author is concerned the current five-year  
            inspection schedule is insufficient to protect the health and  
            safety of residents The author notes these facilities have  
            high staff turn-over, which increases the risk to the quality  
            of care that the clients receive. 

            The author contends increasing the frequency of inspections  
            improve the health and safety for clients at these facilities  
            and put California on par with many other states. 

           2)Background  . Prior to 2003, the required frequency of CCLD  
            facility visits was annually for most facility types (and  
            tri-annually for family child care).  Since then, in response  
            to the state's fiscal situation, it was deemed necessary to  
            find ways to reduce costs.  As a result CCLD is now required  
            to do unannounced visits annually only in circumstances when  








                                                                  AB 364
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            the facility has a history of compliance  
            problems-approximately 10% of facilities. For those  
            residential facilities not subject to annual inspections, CCLD  
            is currently required to conduct comprehensive compliance  
            inspections on a 30% random sample of facilities each year,  
            with no facility visited less than once every five years.   
            There are additional inspection requirements for new  
            facilities or when changes occur to the license. These  
            pre-licensing inspection and post-licensing inspections help  
            ensure that a new licensee starts off correctly.

           3)Related Legislation  . AB 419 (Mitchell) in 2011 would have  
            increased the frequency of visits for most licensed facilities  
            to once per year and required the adoption of key indicator  
            measures to make those visits more efficient.  That bill was  
            held on this committee's Suspense File. 

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081