ALs, PCHs, CCRCs, SNFs, RCFEs and the Name Game in Senior Housing
One of the first assignments I give to law students in my Elder Law course is to visit a “nursing home” and to see if they can get a copy of the admission agreement or contract. (Most of the facilities in my area cooperate with these student visitors.) The lesson here, however, is revealed when the students bring the documents back to the classroom for discussion. We discover that the majority of the contracts are not for admission to “skilled nursing facilities.”
More frequently the facilities in question are licensed as “continuing care retirement communities” or CCRCs, which are big in Pennsylvania, or personal care homes (PCs or PCHs), or assisted living (AL) communities, each of which have different state regulations applying to their operations. These are not “nursing homes,” or at least, they are not “skilled nursing facilities.” Further, in Pennsylvania, increasingly there may be no label at all — at least not a label that the public is familiar with — and that is often by design as the facility or community may be attempting to avoid a “higher” level of requirements.
The usual explanation is that the choice in label is not driven by concerns over “quality” of care, but by costs of having to meet some non “care” related regulation, such as AL state requirements for room size or physical accommodations. The facility makes the case that it can meet the real needs of its clientele without being tied to “higher care” and therefore more “costly” models for senior housing. Fair enough. Caveat emptor. If you are the customer, make sure you do your homework, ask questions, comparative shop, and avoid assumptions based on pretty pictures in marketing brochures. And try to do all of this before an emergency that accelerates the need for a move.
But, there can be significant differences triggered by a label (or lack thereof) that are not readily apparent to the public. A recent Policy Issue Brief published by Justice In Aging (formerly the National Senior Law Center) uses examples from California to shine a spotlight on subtle issues in labeling, as well as on the importance of regulations that are responsive and up-to-date. Merely changing an “identity” or label should not be the basis for failing to comply with minimum standards relevant to the clients’ needs.
In How California’s Assisted Living System Falls Short in Addressing Residents’ Health Care Needs, Justice in Aging (JIA, to make our circle of acronyms almost complete), provides a sample job notice for a California facility and asks “can you spot the legal violations in this Assisted Living job announcement?” The notice, appears to be hiring for a “certified med aide,” despite the fact that there is no such thing in California, and more importantly, if the facility calling itself “Assisted Living” is actually a RCFE (residential care facility for the elderly), the California regulations do not permit staff to administer medications. Outside of Medicare/Medicaid standards for skilled nursing facilities — the “nursing homes” of the past — there are no national standards for labeling of “assisted living” or the many alternatives.
JIA’s issue brief dated April 7, 2015 is part of a series that explores how California’s system functions and points to ways it could be modified to help assure residents their expectations and needs will be satisfied.
The lessons in the JIA brief — with a few tweaks to respond to any given state’s set of acronyms — seem equally relevant in all states.