End-of-session update

We are in the home stretch with only 8 days remaining in the 2013 Legislative Session. With all the scandal, secretly recorded conversations and sexual harassment, I suspect what legislators want most of all is to get this session behind them. While the governor and legislative leaders have their own end-of-session priorities (medical marijuana, women’s equality agenda, DREAM act), LeadingAge New York has a few of our own, which we need your help to get accomplished.

Patient Handling: Memo of Opposition for A.2180-A (Gunther)-S.1123-A (Maziarz). UPDATE: The bill is on the Assembly floor calendar. We’ve been told that the Assembly will likely amend the bill today to exclude developmental disability facilities and reference individualized care plans for nursing home residents. We remain concerned that the bill provides blanket exemptions from patient abandonment and neglect if direct care staff refuses to engage in patient handling and we would like nursing homes exempted entirely. The Senate bill is currently in the Finance Committee. We are told that the Finance Chair, Senator DeFrancisco, opposes the bill as it is currently written, but is getting pressure to report it from the Committee.

Life Care at Home: Memo of Support for A.4611 (Schimminger)-S.2118 (Ranzenhofer). UPDATE: The bill has passed the Senate for the second year in a row but we are struggling to get the Assembly Health Committee Chair, Assemblyman Gottfried, to move it out of the committee. We need members to reach out to their Assembly representatives and ask them to ask Assemblyman Gottfried and Speaker Silver to move the bill.

ALP Retention Standards (2-person assist): Memo of Support for A.7755 (Gottfried)-S.5096 (Golden). UPDATE: We were successful at recently getting this bill introduced in both houses and it will be taken up in the Assembly Health Committee today. We are going to need a strong grassroots advocacy push to get this bill passed both houses with only 2 weeks of session remaining.

Streamlining ACF/Assisted Living Applications: Memo of Support for A.7835 (Gottfried)-S.5628 (Hannon). UPDATE: We were successful at recently getting this bill introduced in both houses and it will be taken up in the Assembly and Senate Health Committees today. We are going to need a strong grassroots advocacy push to get this bill passed both houses with only 2 weeks of session remaining.

With only 8 days left in the 2013 Legislative Session it is important that you call your legislators to ensure they understand our end-of-session priorities. They are in their Albany offices today through Thursday and you can find their contact information on our Legislative Action Center. Don’t let them leave Albany without addressing our priorities!