House approves assisted living bill

By Carrie Teegardin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state House voted 172-1 Tuesday to approve a bill that will help seniors stay in assisted living facilities instead of being forced into nursing homes simply because they need help taking medications or getting around in an emergency.

The bill, which has implications for countless elderly Georgians and their family members, would create an official "assisted living" designation in state law for the first time. The facilities, which must have 25 beds or more, could have medication aides on staff who could give residents pills and insulin shots, which isn't allowed today. And the rules would permit residents to stay even if they need some assistance getting around, as long as the facility has enough staff to keep its residents safe during a fire or other emergency.

Assisted living facilities are currently licensed as personal care homes, a designation created years ago that doesn't allow facilities to provide much assistance unless the state grants a waiver. Under current law, the state can force  elderly people to move out of assisted living facilities they consider their homes, even when the facility wants the resident to stay.

Senate bill 178 will return to the Senate, which already passed a slightly different version of the bill.

For Jeff Herman, the bill offers hope that his family, instead of the state of Georgia, will be able to decide where his 93-year-old mother spends the end of her life. The state has been trying to force Herman's mother to leave a Buckhead assisted living facility because the state says Myrtle Herman isn't mobile enough to stay at the facility. No public money is involved. Herman and his mother pay for her care at the assisted living home, as do most residents of such facilities.

Herman wrote to House leaders this week urging them to pass the bill, which advocates for the elderly have sought for 16 years.

The bill "is more than just words on a piece of paper, quite literally the fate of many faceless and voiceless elderly are in your hands today," Herman wrote, telling lawmakers that his mother lives in fear of being uprooted from her home and institutionalized in a nursing home.

"Her only crime is that she has lived to be old," he wrote.

Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, told her colleagues that the new designation would help baby boomers -- who are rolling toward retirement -- stay as independent as possible for as long as possible.

"This is one bill that you need to tell your constituents about and one bill you can be extremely proud of," Cooper said.

The nursing home lobby in previous years argued that assisted living facilities could not adequately care for frail seniors. But this year a compromise was reached between the nursing home industry, assisted living facilities and personal care home operators, allowing the bill to win widespread support.

 "This is a great step for seniors in Georgia and their families," said Kathy Floyd, a lobbyist for the AARP. "We have wanted this for 16 years."