Governor signs two pro-long term care bills into law

Last week, Governor Scott approved SB 332 by Sen. Denise Grimsley (R-21) relating to vaccines in nursing centers. The law, which becomes effective July 1, 2015, will giving nursing centers flexibility by allowing all new, eligible nursing center admissions to be vaccinated with any pneumococcal vaccination, as long as the vaccine is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Governor also approved SB 7018 by Sen. Eleanor Sobel (D-33), which provides a major rewrite to the State Long Term Care Ombudsman program. The law, which becomes effective July 1, 2015, also improves the Gold Seal process under the Governor's Panel on Excellence in Long-Term Care by clarifying the criteria at the application stage. As we've reported, some Gold Seal applications were denied if a center had an unresolved ombudsman complaint. That subjectivity has been eliminated by changing an "unresolved complaint" to "only complaints which result in a licensure citation."