Skilled nursing facilities: intermediate care facilities: feeding assistants.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including among others, skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any person to willfully or repeatedly violate the provisions governing the licensure and regulation of health facilities. This bill would authorize a skilled nursing facility or intermediate care facility to adopt a feeding assistant training program and would require the department to approve a feeding assistant training program for facilities to adopt that meets specified requirements. The bill would require skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities that utilize feeding assistants to comply with certain requirements, including that a feeding assistant only provide dining assistance for residents who have no complicated feeding problems. The bill would also specify that hours of care provided by a feeding assistant may be used in determining whether a facility satisfies direct care service hour, or nursing hour, per patient day requirements. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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.