Skilled Nursing Facility Transparency and Accountability
Californians spent more than $11 billion on nursing home care in 2019 but low nurse staffing levels and quality of care problems have persisted in many homes over the years. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these staffing and quality problems and resulted in over 61,000 resident infections, about 9,000 resident deaths, and over 50,000 staffing infections by February 2021. While nursing homes claim that payment rates are inadequate to improve staffing and improve care, it is not clear how the current nursing home payments are being spent. Nursing homes often use complex ownership structures to shift money to “related parties,” such as corporate home offices, property companies, and management companies and to hide profits and support facilities’ claims for increased public funding.
SB 650 has been introduced by Senator Stern to require nursing homes to file annual audited consolidated financial statements for each nursing home and its related party companies, giving the State and the public more transparency for nursing home payments. The bill also requires nursing home management and property companies and related parties to submit audited financial reports. This bill is a step forward to ensure that nursing home funds are used for staffing and services to residents.
To learn more, view CALTCM’s March 8, 2021 webinar featuring Senator Stern, CALTCM is an active sponsor of this bill.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB650