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Nursing Home Advisory Group Has Plenty of Proposals

November 7, 2011 | WMFE - This week the Governor's workgroup on Assisted Living Facilities is meeting in Miami. Governor Rick Scott assembled the panel after a Miami Herald and WLRN investigation revealed rampant abuse and neglect in Florida's assisted living. The group is holding its 3rd and final meeting starting this morning at Florida International University and has no shortage of recommendations on how to fix a broken system.

The Assisted Living Workgroup will have its work cut out for it this week. The task force is comprised of a wide range of members with a wide range of interests. There are state legislators, elder advocates, industry advocates, state agency representatives and academics.

Larry Polivka is the workgroup's chairman. He said there are a lot of ideas on the table right now, 17 pages worth to be exact. But he said there are probably just a few that a majority of panelists will agree on.

"I think the general perception is that the rules and regulations about assisted living that have emerged over the last 20 years are pretty sound.” Polivkz said. “That doesn't mean they shouldn't be tweaked here and there, but I think it's more an issue of enforcing properly."

Elder and disability advocates want tighter assisted living regulations, industry reps want less regulation and the state agency that oversees the industry wants more secrecy.

Polivka said recommendations range from higher qualifications for facility administrators to more frequent reporting by facilities. But he said he's pushing to form a continuing task force to deal with more philosophical questions of what went wrong.

"Any workgroup dealing with it would need probably 6 or 7 months to collect information, see what other states are doing, look at the research and maybe come up with a proposal for more sweeping changes." Polivka said.

The workgroup's recommendations will most likely be wrapped into legislation for the upcoming session in January.


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