CS for SB 646 - Assisted Living Facilities

• Transfers responsibility for mental health residents in assisted living facilities from the Department of Children and Family Services to Medicaid prepaid behavioral health plans and managing entities, with required community living support plans provided upon admission.

• Requires case managers to maintain records of face-to-face interactions with mental health residents and mandates monitoring and enforcement of community living support plans with reporting of concerns to regulatory oversight organizations.

• Establishes provisional extended congregate care licenses for facilities licensed less than 2 years, requires notification of resident admissions within 3 months, and reduces nursing services monitoring visits from twice yearly to at least annually.

• Lowers the threshold for obtaining a limited mental health license from three or more mental health residents to one or more residents and requires preservice orientation with signed affidavits for all newly hired employees.

• Implements fixed administrative fines ($7,500-$150 per violation depending on violation class and facility bed size), increases inspection frequency for facilities with class I or class II violations, and requires the Agency for Health Care Administration to create consumer-accessible website content with facility information and violations.