SF 508 (LSB 1721XS (4) 91)

SENATE FILE 508

BY  TRONE GARRIOTT

A BILL FOR

An Act requiring joint training sessions for nursing home inspectors and nursing facilities related to skilled nursing and therapy services.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 135C.35C, Code 2025, is amended to read as follows:
   135C.35C  Nursing facilities —— joint training sessions.
   1.  The department shall semiannually provide joint training sessions for inspectors and nursing facilities to review at least three of the ten most frequently issued federal citations in the state during the immediately preceding calendar year. The department shall develop a protocol to identify regional citation patterns relating to complaints, standards, and outcomes in the nursing facility inspection process. The department shall include the state long-term care ombudsman, or the state long-term care ombudsman’s designee, and representatives of each nursing facility provider association in the state in the planning process for the joint training sessions.
   2.  The department shall provide at least one joint training session for inspectors and nursing facilities that provides information and background relating to the settlement agreement approved by the court in Jimmo v. Sebelius, No. 5:11-CV-17 (D. Vt.), on January 1, 2013, including that the settlement agreement clarifies the policy of the federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid services of the United States department of health and human services that coverage of skilled nursing and skilled therapy services in a skilled nursing facility, a home health setting, and an outpatient therapy setting does not turn on a beneficiary’s potential for improvement, but rather on the beneficiary’s need for skilled care.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill requires the department of health and human services to provide at least one joint training session for nursing facility inspectors and nursing facilities related to the settlement agreement approved by the court on January 1, 2013, in Jimmo v. Sebelius, No. 5:11-CV-17 (D. Vt.). The settlement agreement clarifies the policy of the federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid of the United States department of health and human services that coverage of skilled nursing and therapy in a skilled nursing facility, a home health setting, or an outpatient therapy setting relies on a beneficiary’s need for skilled care, not the beneficiary’s potential for improvement.