Assisted living legislation signed into law

At a bill signing ceremony at the Levittown Senior Center in Nassau County, Governor George E. Pataki signed into law historic assisted living reform legislation sponsored by Senator George D. Maziarz (62nd district) that will provide New York's seniors with greater consumer protections and improved long-term care options.

Maziarz, who attended the signing, said, "With the governor's signature today, the assisted living reforms that we have sought for years will finally come into being. From constituents to industry experts, many have been involved in getting this done, and we can all be proud of our efforts. As prime sponsor of the bill, I can confidently say that we are making sure that assisted living facilities are properly run, and that seniors' needs are being met every step of the way."

Pataki said, "This new law brings added protection to our seniors, encourages new development of much-needed assisted living residences across the state and will ultimately hold providers accountable for the services they provide. With this historic law, New York's seniors will have greater opportunities to choose the housing they want and deserve."

This measure, the "Assisted Living Reform Act," creates a true assisted living law for the first time in New York. Among its many provisions, it:

•Defines assisted living and assisted living residences as separate from adult homes,

•Allows aging in place only at enhanced assisted living facilities,

•Makes provision for care of special populations,

•Requires "look-a-likes" to become licensed or face criminal penalties and provides incentives if they apply for licensure quickly, functional, cognitive and other needs of the residents, reviewed every six months, for each resident in an assisted living facility. These are developed with the resident, the resident's representative and legal represenative, the assisted living operator, a home care services agency (if necessary) and in consultation with the resident's physician,

•Requires written residency agreements in plain language and in 12-point type, that must cover at least 16 separate items of information, including a description of the services to be provided and fees to be charged; the statute also requires that the agreement be provided in full to the resident again any time there is a change in fees,

•Creates an enforcement fund from the licensure fees and fines paid by the facilities, to be used for oversight and enforcement,

•Requires full disclosure to consumers and their families interested in locating to an assisted living facility of at least nine points of information, including ownership by the facility operator (in excess of 10%) of any company which provides goods or services to residents, as well as any such ownership by such company in the facility