Sen. John Cosgrove’s SB553 on electronic monitoring moved swiftly through the House Health, Welfare and Institutions (HWI) Committee after Sen. Cosgrove proposed alternate language for the bill.

SB553, which has been amended several times, initially would have required a nursing center to grant a resident’s request for electronic monitoring.

The HWI Committee has instead unanimously approved alternate bill language that would require the Board of Health to promulgate regulations by July 1, 2017 governing audio-visual recording of residents in nursing facilities. The bill instructs that such regulations consider:

• Resident privacy
• Notice and disclosure of the monitoring
• Liability
• Ownership and maintenance of the monitoring equipment
• Costs
• Recording data and security
• Nursing centers’ options for both nursing center-managed recording and resident-managed recording.

The bill also requires the Department of Health to convene a workgroup that includes representatives of nursing facilities, advocates for residents of nursing facilities, and other stakeholders to make recommendations to the Board on the regulations. The work group must report its recommendations to the Board of Health and the General Assembly by December 1, 2016.

The bill now faces a full House vote. Following that, the Senate will have to approve the new language since both chambers must vote in favor of a bill in identical form.

VHCA-VCAL is grateful to Sen. Cosgrove for his willingness to listen to provider concerns about the legislation and to offer amendments to his bill to ensure that regulations are developed with stakeholder input on important issues related to privacy, liability, and costs.

VHCA-VCAL was asked by the Virginian Pilot about the earlier version of the legislation. Click here to read the article that explains the efforts by one of Sen. Cosgrove’s constituents to support electronic monitoring requirements.