Referral source 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 any specified county department, stated-funded program, agency, or person that is engaged in identifying senior housing options at residential care facilities for the elderly. The bill would prohibit a referral source from, among other things, referring a person to a residential care facility for the elderly in which the referral source has an ownership or management interest without a waiver. The bill would require a referral source, before sending a compensated referral to a residential care facility for the elderly, to provide a person or their representative with specific written, electronic, or verbal disclosures that include, among others, the referral source's privacy policy. The bill would additionally require a compensated referral source to comply with additional requirements that include, among others, maintaining a minimum amount of liability insurance coverage. 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.