Sec. 6. 22 MRSA §1812-I is enacted to read:

§1812-I.__Nursing facility flex beds

"Nursing facility flex beds" means nursing facility beds licensed by the department for use also as residential care beds.

Sec. 7. 22 MRSA §1813, as amended by PL 1997, c. 488, §1, is further amended by adding at the end a new paragraph to read:

For nursing facilities providing nursing facility flex beds as defined in section 1812-I, the department shall issue a single license reflecting the nursing and residential facility levels of care and the number of nursing facility beds allowed to be used as nursing facility flex beds.__Nursing facility flex beds may be established only in nursing facilities that are farther than 25 miles from the nearest available licensed residential care facility at the time of licensing the nursing facility flex beds, or if necessary to meet the care needs of an existing resident.__ The number of nursing facility flex beds in any one nursing facility may not exceed 30% of the total number of beds licensed in that facility.__The commissioner shall adopt rules, which are routine technical rules pursuant to Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter II-A, to implement this paragraph.

Sec. 8. Application for pilot program required. The Department of Human Services shall seek federal matching funds for a pilot program utilizing all nursing facilities with nursing facility flex beds.

SUMMARY

This bill addresses the issue identified in the Final Report of the Commission to Examine Rate Setting and the Financing of Maine's Long-Term Care Facilities, dated November 20, 1998, regarding resident access to long-term care in rural communities by allowing the use of "nursing facility flex beds," through which nursing facilities may use a designated number of beds for nursing or residential care. In circumstances when residents would otherwise have no access to residential care services, either because they live in a rural area where no residential care facility exists or they currently live in a nursing facility and their health improves to the extent that they require only residential care services and the nearest residential care facility is located more than 25 miles from a nursing facility, this bill enables them to receive residential care without undertaking a major geographic relocation. This bill also allows a resident to remain in that resident's current nursing facility, even if that resident's care needs fluctuate between nursing facility and residential care levels. This bill also allows nursing facilities reimbursement in such circumstances, in accordance with the level of care provided and in accordance with rules adopted by the Commissioner of Human Services. This bill also directs the Department of Human Services to seek federal matching funds for a pilot project utilizing nursing facility flex beds.