On November 7 the Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC), a standing commission of the General Assembly, unanimously supported establishing a requirement that each assisted living facility (ALF) be required to disclose whether it has a generator. The Commission voted against a motion to introduce legislation requiring all licensed ALFs have back up emergency generators onsite and in operating order pursuant to the NFPA 110-1 standards and taking into consideration the requirements, exemptions, and extensions contained within the laws of Maryland.

Last month VHCA-VCAL recommended that the Commission take no action on the policy options it was considering on back up emergency generators at assisted living facilities (ALFs). In comments to the commission, VHCA-VCAL President and CEO Keith Hare explained that ALFs are already subject to rigorous emergency preparedness standards. He also described the efforts of VHCA-VCAL to coordinate with Dominion Energy to prioritize ALFs and nursing homes for priority power restoration following outages.

VHCA-VCAL does not object to proposal to establish a new disclosure requirement.

In debating the topic, legislators focused on reimbursement and cost to the ALFs.  Senators William Carrico (R-Grayson), Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico), and George Barker (D-Fairfax). Del. David Bulova (D-Fairfax) proposed the idea of disclosure, which was endorsed by Senators Carrico and Dunnavant and passed unanimously. The commission’s recommendation closes out its work on the study of generators for assisted living. VHCA-VCAL was actively involved in supporting the study process by participating in meetings with the JCHC staff conducting the study and in sharing a survey of generator capacity with members. 

Resources
VHCA-VCAL Comments to JCHC (October 26, 2018)