News
Virginia To Increase Penalties Against Assisted Living Facilities
Posted on May 11, 2005
The Virginia General Assembly has recently made a few small steps in the right direction to strengthen regulations for assisted living facilities, to improve funding, and to increase fines against assisted living facilities. The changes are merely a start. Under legislation passed last session, administrators of assisted living facilities must be licensed the Department of Health Professionals. Previously, there were no requirements for administrators to be licensed. The state has modestly increased funding for subsidies for low income residents of assisted living facilities. Even with the increase in funding, the state will spend only about $31 per day per subsidized residents. That is less than many people spend to board a pet. Perhaps most substantial, the legislation will increase fines from a maximum of $500 to $10,000. Unfortantely the legislation fails to address understaffing at assisted living facilities. Under current law, there are no minimum staffing levels with specified ratios of care workers to residents of assisted living facilities.