Minnesota lawmakers are seeking to amend state law to allow people to designate at least one support person to be present when they are receiving healthcare services at assisted living communities and other residential long-term care settings.
A 2024 law “didn’t cover all the people it intended to cover because it used the word ‘patient’ to describe who would get that designated support person,” according to an article about the new legislation that was posted on the Minnesota House of Representatives website. “That one word statutorily restricted access to only people that were patients at hospitals, not residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and long-term care facilities.”
During COVID-19, the state put many restrictions in place limiting or prohibiting family members from visiting people at assisted living communities, nursing homes, hospitals and other settings. The restrictions were designed to reduce the spread of COVID.
“Limiting visitation as the state and federal governments required during the pandemic was shown to negatively impact our resident’s [sic] mental and physical health,” Kyle Berndt, senior director of advocacy for Care Providers of Minnesota, the state affiliate of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, said in the article. “In fact, most public health institutions have long identified a link between social isolation and chronic illness.”
The Minnesota Legislature passed a law in 2024 requiring at least one designated support person to be physically present while someone is receiving healthcare services. The law, however, only referred specifically to “patients” who were receiving care for hospital stays and did not specifically include assisted living communities and nursing homes.
HF2407 would amend the Assisted Living Bill of Rights and Minnesota Patients’ Bill of Rights to require non-acute facilities, such as assisted living communities and nursing homes, to allow residents to designate a support person while they are there.
Sponsors of the proposed amendment said the original intent of the law was to include assisted living and nursing homes in addition to hospitals.
“The intent was to have it be for hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities,” state Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar (R), the bill’s sponsor, said in the online article. “I wasn’t expecting to have to do a new bill, but this is really important, so important that I got emails asking for clarity after the bill passed and I didn’t realize that we’d have issues.”
The law still would allow assisted living and other providers to restrict or prohibit a designated support person from being present for certain treatments or procedures as necessary, or if the designated support person is acting in a violent or threatening manner toward others.
Read more state news here.
Source: McKnights Seniorliving
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