Read Miami Herald Oped by Brian Lee

by Brian Lee, Executive Director

Gov. Rick Scott’s recent strategies to address the abuse and neglect of residents who live in assisted living facilities in response to The Miami Herald’s Neglected to Death series have thus far yielded mixed results.

In a positive first step, he flexed his executive muscle by ramping up inspections of those operators who had a history of violating residents’ rights. He sought to “motivate” them into taking better care of our parents and grandparents through the regulatory and enforcement process.

He did well by authorizing his agencies to impose administrative sanctions and to initiate the overdue revocation of some facilities’ licenses known in their communities to be bastions of neglect. This sent a convincing message to assisted living providers: It is time to clean up your industry. His efforts gave residents hope that some of the hardships they long endured were finally going to be fixed and they would no longer live in fear.

But just when things started looking promising for residents and their families, the governor decided to opt for what appears to be a political solution to placate the healthcare industry. He created an assisted living facility “workgroup” whose objective is to supposedly “make recommendations that will improve monitoring and safety in assisted living facilities.”

Establishing a workgroup is the classic Tallahassee approach to put a nail in the coffin of a controversial issue. Politicians create these blue-ribbon panels that demand “tough action” and propose “powerful recommendations” that everyone knows, even those who serve on these types of groups, that their ideas will never see the light of day.

They offer the public a clever sound bite or two and often publish a nicely wrapped package of superfluous proposals, but these workgroups are typically a facade to sell the perception that politicians “care” and are “working to address” a problem. All the while, they are trying to sweep it under the rug and wait for the swirling media storm to blow over.

This workgroup is, by all appearances, going to be no different. A closer examination of those selected by Scott reveals that he has stacked the group (with the exception of state Sen. Ronda Storms whose record reflects a strong and consistent elder rights’ champion) with individuals who have favorable ties to the industry as lobbyists, providers or consultants. Many are the very people largely responsible for the lax oversight and laughable penalties The Herald exposed.

Even the lone consumer advocate, the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman, has an industry affiliation. The Associated Press reported that he was “recommended for his job by the Florida Assisted Living Association,” a trade group that represents providers.

And as for the other legislator, Rep. Matt Hudson has a strong record not just of being a deregulator in the name of “minimizing agency duplication,” but a strong opponent of resident protections.

This past legislative session he proposed several bills to sanitize regulatory oversight of assisted living facilities, namely repealing ombudsman administrative assessments (the only agency mandated to visit assisted living facilities at least annually). He also authored House Bill 4051 — assisted living facility legislation that Scott vetoed because he believed it would have “relaxed” provider reporting requirements — the very things that, ironically, led to the creation of this supposed task force (task farce?) in the first place.

The workgroup as it stands needs to be either disbanded or completely overhauled. If nothing else, the group needs to be balanced with more residents, families and consumers who have the most to win or lose. Otherwise, the industry profiteers will dominate the discussion and cleverly refashion laws to benefit their businesses and whitewash residents’ rights. For years their voice has dominated the conversation and now they need to make room at the table so new solutions can be heard if our state is going to fix this train wreck.

It is time for the political shenanigans to stop as our elders and disabled adults deserve better leadership from our governor. Devising and applying political schemes to fix problems when real answers are needed will only exacerbate the abuse and neglect of residents in too many facilities for years to come. Strong enforcement is what is needed for residents now.

Brian Lee is the executive director of Families for Better Care, a nursing home and assisted living facility resident advocacy group. He served as Florida’s State Long-Term Care Ombudsman for most of the past decade.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011%2