Referral agencies for residential care facilities for the elderly: duties.

(1) The California Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly Act generally requires the State Department of Social Services to license, inspect, and regulate residential care facilities for the elderly and imposes criminal penalties on a person who violates the act or who willfully or repeatedly violates any rule or regulation adopted under the act. The act prohibits a placement agency, as defined, from placing an individual in a licensed residential care facility for the elderly if the individual, because of a health condition, cannot be cared for within the limits of the license or requires inpatient care in a health facility. The act requires an employee of a placement agency who knows, or reasonably suspects, that a facility is improperly operating without a license to report the facility to the department, and requires the department to investigate those reports. The act further requires a placement agency to notify the appropriate licensing agency of any known or suspected incidents that would jeopardize the health or safety of residents in a facility. The act specifically makes a violation of these requirements a crime. This bill would recast the requirements on a placement agency and its employees to instead be requirements on a referral source, defined to mean a person or entity that provides a referral to a residential care facility for the elderly, except as specified. The bill would prohibit a referral source from, among other things, holding any power of attorney for a potential resident or referring a person to a residential care facility for the elderly in which the referral source has an ownership or management interest or a common employee in an executive management position, except as specified. The bill would require a referral source to provide a senior or their representative with specific written, electronic, or verbal disclosures, before sending a compensated referral, that include, among others, the referral source's privacy policy and a statement that the senior or representative may request in writing that the referral source cease contact with the senior. The bill would additionally require a compensated referral source to use a nationally accredited service provider to perform background checks on referral sources who have direct contact with seniors or their representatives, maintain liability insurance, and accept remuneration only from residential care facilities for the elderly with which the referral source has a written contract. The bill would further require a compensated referral source to post specific information on its internet website or marketing materials relating to its privacy policy. The bill would impose criminal penalties and civil penalties for a violation of these provisions, as specified. By expanding the existing crime under the act and specifying new criminal penalties, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.