HF3308 Summary

• Strengthens patient and resident grievance rights by requiring written internal grievance procedures in acute care facilities, residential programs, nonacute care facilities, and outpatient mental health facilities with clear timelines and impartial decision-making processes.

• Expands home care provider oversight through revised correction order procedures requiring development of corrective action plans within 15 calendar days and adds new home care bill of rights protections including right to recommend changes free from retaliation.

• Establishes training and operations panel within Office of Health Facility Complaints to improve investigator training, develop quality control measures for intake/triage, ensure compliance with federal investigation deadlines, and publish investigation memoranda and licensing violation orders searchable by facility name.

• Creates three working groups (assisted living and dementia care licensing, dementia care certification, and assisted living report card) tasked with developing recommendations and draft legislation by January 15, 2019 on regulatory frameworks, consumer protections, and quality metrics.

• Modifies vulnerable adult maltreatment reporting requirements to require notification of reporters regarding initial disposition within five business days, establish 60-day deadline for final disposition with notification procedures, and create rebuttable presumption that adverse actions within 90 days of a report are retaliatory with damages up to $10,000.