A Wyoming bill addressing visitation in long-term care facilities and hospitals cleared the House and has moved on to the Senate, but not before some significant revisions were made to the benefit of providers.
House Bill 27 originally sought to prevent Wyoming’s assisted living communities, nursing homes, other long-term care settings and hospitals from prohibiting visitors. Several amendments have placed that decision-making power back in the hands of operators.
One amendment allows each provider to retain control and administration authority over its facility, including the scheduling and management of visitation.
Another amendment states that facilities may impose and enforce restrictions on visitation that limit the number of and age of visitors, as well as the location or time of visitation. This amendment also would require facilities to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Eric Boley, executive director of LeadingAge Wyoming and president of the Wyoming Hospital Association, told McKnight’s Senior Living that the bill was a reaction to visitation limitations during the pandemic.
Although he said he understands families wanting to visit loved ones and how isolation affects residents, assisted living communities and nursing homes “have been dealt a tough hand.” CDC visitation requirements applying to numerous settings, and CMS requirements applying to nursing homes, he said, were “onerous and very restrictive,” changed often and created uncertainty and challenges for providers.
“Our members have tried to be creative in finding ways to balance the needs and wants of individuals with the requirements to protect the whole,” Boley said. “HB27 could have potentially created the situation where state law was in direct conflict to CMS and CDC and put providers at risk of fines and citations, and could have ultimately put residents in our facilities at risk.”
The intent of the bill was sincere, he added, but its ramifications were “widespread and problematic and would not allow us to follow science and best practices to care for and protect those whom we serve.”
Proponents of the bill said it forces facilities to develop safe visitation guidelines.
According to a LeadingAge legislation tracker, several states have passed legislation mandating visitation at assisted living and long-term care facilities, including Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.
