BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2231 (Calderon) - Care facilities: civil penalties
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|Version: June 21, 2016 |Policy Vote: HUMAN S. 4 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Debra Cooper |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 2231 would increase the civil penalties to licensed
community care facilities and imposes civil penalties for repeat
violations. This bill would delete the provisions that authorize
the Department of Social Services (DSS) to impose these civil
penalties and instead makes them mandatory. This bill requires
DSS to make a good faith effort to work with the licensee to
determine the cause of deficiency and prevent repeat violations.
This bill also requires civil penalties to be due and payable
when administrative appeals have been exhausted and to be
subject to late fees, except as specified.
Fiscal
Impact:
Estimated one-time costs to DSS of $438,000 for fiscal year
2016-17 and ongoing costs of $378,000 per year for
administrative costs, enforcement, and addressing the
anticipated increase in appeals generated by the new penalty
structure. (GF)
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One-time costs potentially in excess of $150,000 to DSS to
revise regulations and make penalty system adjustments for
licensed community care facilities. (GF)
Potential revenue to DSS from assessing civil penalties for
violations. (Child Health and Safety Fund)
Background: When DSS finds a license community care facility in violation
of law or regulation, the facility may be given a citation. The
facility is given the opportunity to correct the violation and
submit a Plan of Correction with a specified length of time.
Failure to correct the deficiency within an established time
frame results in accumulation of fines.
Fine Structure : In 1985, the California Residential Care
Facilities for the Elderly Act established a civil penalty
structure for violations in licensed community care facilities.
At the time, the minimum penalty was $25 and the maximum penalty
was $150 per day per violation. It also permitted additional
civil penalties for repeat violations within a 12 month period.
Existing law allows DSS to levy civil penalties ranging from
$1,000 to $15,000, depending on facility type, where violations
are determined to have resulted in death, serious bodily injury,
or physical abuse of a person receiving care. The author notes
that civil penalty amounts for many other "less serious"
violations have not been increased.
Certain violations are informally referred to by DSS, as "zero
tolerance" violations, which require immediate assessment of a
civil penalty. Included in those violations are fire clearance
violations, absence of required supervision, accessible bodies
of water, accessible firearms or ammunition, refused entry to a
facility, and the presence of an excluded person on the
premises.
Appeals Process : Existing law allows a licensee to request a
formal review of a civil penalty assessed for the death of,
serious bodily injury of, or physical abuse to a resident or
child at a licensed care facility within 10 days of receipt of
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the notice of civil penalty. The appeals process for serious
violations is a four-step process that would potentially be
heard by a regional manager of DSS's Community Care Licensing
Division's program administrator and deputy director, and
ultimately to an administrative law judge, as specified. The
appeals process for "less serious" violations is a streamlined
two-step process.
Proposed Law:
This bill would make a number of changes to the civil penalty
structure and enforcement provisions for licensed community care
facilities, including, but not limited to, Residential Care
Facilities for Persons with Chronic Life-Threatening Illness,
Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly, Day Care Centers,
and Family Day Care Homes, as follows:
Delete language permitting DSS to impose specified civil
penalties and instead making it required.
Increase the civil penalty amount that DSS may levy to $100
per day for certain violations, as specified.
Subject any agency or facility that repeats the violation to
an immediate civil penalty of $250 per repeat violation and
$100 for each day thereafter that the violation continues.
Define "repeat violation"
Require the notice of deficiency to state the manner in which
the deficiency constitutes a repeat violation.
Require, upon submission of evidence that a deficiency has
been corrected and approved by DSS, the penalty to cease as of
the day DSS received the evidence, or an earlier date if DSS
is able to verify that the deficiency was corrected by the
earlier date.
Authorize DSS to inspect the facility within five working days
after receiving evidence that a deficiency has been corrected
to confirm that the deficiency has been corrected.
Require that if DSS determines that a deficiency has not been
corrected, civil penalties shall continue to accrue from the
date of the original citation.
Make changes to civil penalties assessed for more serious
violations, as specified.
Require DSS to level civil penalties of specific amounts for
violations involving death physical abuse, or serious bodily
injury, as specified.
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Require DSS to make a good faith effort to work with the
licensee to determine the cause of the deficiency and ways to
prevent repeat violations.
Require that penalties shall be due and payable when
administrative appeals have exhausted, unless payment
arrangements, as specified have been made.
Require DSS to post on its Internet Web site specified
information regarding the number of citations, complaint
inspections, and noncomplaint inspections during the preceding
five years.
Require every child care resource and referral program to
provide an advisement to parents about their rights to
information about complaints about a child care provider, as
specified.
Sunset certain provisions of the bill on July 1, 2017.
Delay implementation of certain provisions of the bill,
including new standard for repeat violations and delayed
payments of civil penalties pending full adjudication of the
appeal process until July 1, 2017.
Related
Legislation:
AB 1387 (Chu, Chapter 486, Statutes of 2015) revised the appeals
process for civil penalties.
AB 1467 (Bloom, 2015) would have introduced a tiered system of
civil penalties based on facility capacity and contained other
provision similar to AB 2231. This bill was held in the Assembly
Human Services Committee.
AB 2236 (Maienschein, Chapter813, Statutes of 2014) increased
monetary civil penalties assessed for violations which resulted
in the death, serious bodily injury, or physical abuse of a
person receiving care in various DSS-licensed facilities.
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