BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 918
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Date of Hearing: April 22, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
918 (Mark Stone) - As Amended April 6, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill:
1)Applies existing data reporting requirements related to the
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use of seclusion or restraints, which currently apply to state
institutions, to a number of licensed community facility types
serving primarily elderly or developmentally disabled
individuals.
2)Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take
steps to establish a system of mandatory, consistent, timely,
and publicly accessible data collection related to this data.
3)Requires facilities to report specified data about deaths or
serious injuries related to seclusion or restraints to the
designated protection and advocacy agency (currently
Disability Rights California (DRC)).
FISCAL EFFECT:
1)Approximately $200,000 (Licensing and Certification special
fund/GF) in one-time regulatory and system development costs
to establish regulations detailing the forms and reporting
requirements, data collection and analysis protocols, a
database, training and educational materials, and a
consumer-facing website.
2)Ongoing costs to maintain this data once infrastructure is
established will likely be minor, assuming facilities comply
with reporting requirements. If facilities don't comply, there
could be cost pressure to enforce the reporting requirements
or to provide additional education and training. Any cost
pressure for enforcement or provider education would depend on
the robustness of the activities.
COMMENTS:
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1)Purpose. This bill updates reporting requirements regarding
the use of seclusion and restraints of persons cared for in
licensed facilities, to recognize that most people with
developmental disabilities now live in community settings
instead of state Developmental Centers. The author indicates
the bill will have a twofold impact: data transparency itself
has been shown to reduce the use of seclusion and restraints,
and the data can also be used to compare facilities and
identify facilities where it is more commonly used. This bill
is sponsored by DRC.
2)Staff Comments. This bill could benefit from technical and
clarifying amendments. The bill does not clearly mandate data
be provided by facilities to the Secretary or his or her
designee, but only suggests the system established by the
Secretary be mandatory. The bill also requires the Secretary
to "take steps" to establish a system, whereas it appears the
intent is clearly to establish a system. Finally, the bill
refers to "publicly accessible data collection," but it is the
data itself, not its collection, that will be of use to the
public. These provisions could all be clarified. In
addition, if the intent is to mirror or build on an existing
reporting system, this could be made more explicit.
Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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