BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  AB 249
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 20, 2009 

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                     AB 249 (Carter) - As Amended:  May 5, 2009  

          Policy Committee:                              Health Vote:17-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          Yes    Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill increases the specificity of written patient personal  
          property inventories for residents of long-term care (LTC)  
          facilities. Requires inventories to include listings by unique  
          numerical identifiers of durable medical equipment such as  
          canes, walkers, wheelchairs, hearing aids, and oxygen equipment.  


           FISCAL EFFECT  

          No direct fiscal impact to the California Department of Public  
          Health (DPH) to continue oversight of LTC facilities. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . This bill requires LTC facilities, including  
            skilled nursing facilities (SNF, nursing homes) and  
            intermediate care facilities for the developmentally disabled  
            (ICF-DD) to increase the specificity of information recorded  
            about patients' personal property. According to the author  
            residents of LTC facilities sometimes have difficulty filing  
            police reports about stolen property due to a lack of  
            specificity about property, including no data about a tracking  
            or serial number.   

           2)Concerns  . Although several groups have removed opposition to  
            this bill, the California Hospital Association continues to  
            have concerns about the requirements of this bill.  
            Specifically, CHA indicates they often have patients for only  
            a handful of days. Therefore, collecting the unique identifier  
            information will increase workload for hospital-based SNF  
            without an accompanying increase in quality of care. 








                                                                  AB 249
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           Analysis Prepared by  :    Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081