Editor’s note: As Bristol’s only locally-owned and operated news source, the Bristol Edition will strive to cover developments in Hartford, from gavel to gavel, with an eye toward how this year’s state legislative session impacts our community,
Our coverage begins with the legislative priorities of political interest groups because, with such a tight timeframe for submitting proposed legislation, it is not always possible for legislators to perform their own research on the complex social and economic problems facing our state, nor is it always possible for legislators to draft bills themselves.
This is especially true if legislators sit on committees that are expected to contend with a high volume of legislation in a single rather limited amount of time. That is why it is common practice for legislators to rely on interest groups for assistance with the preparation of key legislation.
By Logan Williams
This year’s legislative session convened Wednesday, Jan. 8 and legislators typically have approximately two weeks to propose new legislation after the session commences, a deadline that ensures that proposed laws are subject to the full scrutiny of the legislative process.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), representing nearly 600,000 members, or about a quarter of all registered voters in Connecticut, is arguably the most important interest group with a significant lobbying presence in Hartford.
With 40 percent of Bristol’s population over the age of 50, senior citizens’ issues are critical to the community’s welfare. In recent months due to the decision from Athena Health Care Systems to close two of Bristol’s long-term care facilities. These facilities employ nearly 300 workers and provide care for over 200 patients.
During last year’s legislative session, one of Bristol’s Republican state legislators, Cara Pavalock-D’Amato—who represents the 77th State House District, comprised largely of Bristol’s Chippens Hill, Edgewood, and North East neighborhoods—voted against the legislation (Public Act No. 24-19, Public Act No. 24-141).
The legislation provided for aforementioned quality-of-life improvements for elderly nursing home residents, including capping room occupancy as well as strengthening quality-control and safety standards through enforcement of corrective action plans.
Pavalock-D’Amato became one of only seven legislators, out of a total of 151, to oppose the legislation, an unusual vote that put Representative Pavalock-D’Amato at odds with even her most conservative colleagues.
Last year’s session delivered key legislation achieving significant, concrete quality-of-life improvements for Connecticut’s senior citizens. These legislative achievements enhanced nursing home transparency, strengthened standards for nursing home facility upkeep and quality of care and increased support for long-term care healthcare workers.
Legislation passed to limit nursing home facilities’ room occupancy by restricting facilities from housing more than two patients per room, to prevent corporations from sacrificing patient care for profits through overcrowding.
The legislature passed a bill requiring medical facilities to adopt and implement the Department of Social Services (DSS) standards for workplace violence prevention, and the legislation tied implementation of these standards to continued receipt of Medicare reimbursements; other legislation was designed to promote the safety of home healthcare workers.
Another piece of legislation imposed penalties upon nursing homes that fail to comply with corrective action plans. For context, the Department of Public Health (DPH) is responsible for the maintenance of standards for nursing home facilities. DPH issues notices to facilities that are found to be in a state of noncompliance with these standards due to sub-par facility upkeep, gross safety violations, or other violations of patients’ rights.
Before last year’s legislative session, the law required nursing home facilities to prepare and submit to DPH, a corrective action plan detailing strategies to address such violations, yet the law provided no inducements or consequences that the state could use to force compliance with the corrective action plan.
The result was that nursing home facilities tended to submit corrective action plans with every intention of continuing to commit egregious violations, often indefinitely.
Therefore, the General Assembly saw fit to impose the following potential consequences on problem facilities: revocation or suspension of a license, censure of a licensee, placement of a licensee on probationary status, or restricting the acquisition of other facilities for a period set by the DPH commissioner.
AARP Connecticut listed various legislative priorities for the 2025 legislative session. The organization urged the legislature to prioritize ensuring the quality of care provided to nursing home residents and to take action to increase transparency and accountability in relation to nursing home facilities’ use of state Medicaid funds.
AARP called upon the legislature to support Connecticut’s estimated 420,000 unpaid family caregivers with a tax credit.
However, AARP’s most interesting legislative priority was the organization’s call for the State of Connecticut to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB), which exisitsin seven other states, including Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon and Washington.
These PDABs are independent, nonpartisan state organizations with the power to review the high cost of prescription drugs and the condition of prescription access, and many states allow these PDABs to ensure affordability and patient access by imposing price ceilings on certain prescriptions. This would almost certainly be a major controversial proposal in a legislative session already expected to contend with several other unavoidable, significant, and controversial bills.
AARP also listed various “kitchen-table” issues that it would like the legislature to take action on this year, such as requesting that the state take action to protect senior citizens from the ever-increasing array of scams and schemes targeting the elderly, to regulate predatory lending practices and reduce the cost of utilities.
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