Advocates for reforming California’s nursing home system are going to have to wait a little while longer for some long-sought changes, following the news that a key piece of legislation has been put off until next year.
Advocates have long warned that the licensing process for California nursing homes is too easy for bad operators to circumvent.
It’s a problem that AB 1502 would have sought to fix, but as CalMatters reports, the bill has now been put on hold.
The news has frustrated many, including reform advocate Tony Chicotel, who said the events of the last year have shown just how urgent this issue really is.
“There’s no question – if we had an ownership system that better vetted the providers, the operators of these facilities, that there would have been fewer COVID outbreaks in nursing homes and there would have been fewer deaths,” he told KCBS Radio.
In the meantime, though, Santa Rosa Assemblymember Jim Wood said lawmakers need the extra time to get this complicated issue right.
Wood, who chairs the committee responsible for advancing health legislation, said he does support reform, but warned that a poorly written bill could end up discouraging good operators as well.
“In order to do a bill like this justice, we felt it was important that we take a step back and make it a two-year bill,” he added.
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