Kaine introduces bill to improve advocacy for patients in long-term care facilities

An increasing number of older Americans are living in long-term care facilities, which requires additional advocacy for families and loved ones.

U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Andy Kim of New Jersey introduced the Strengthening Advocacy for Long-Term Care Residents Act today. The bill would improve the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program established under the Older Americans Act. Local Ombudsman programs designate staff and trained volunteers to advocate for residents of nursing homes and other long-term care (LTC) facilities, allowing residents and their families to report poor conditions and access confidential information related to their health and safety.

“Older Americans deserve to live with dignity, but we continue to see far too many cases of abuse and neglect at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. That’s why I’m introducing this legislation to bolster the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program to help ensure that those living in long-term care facilities have access to trained professionals to advocate on their behalf,” Kaine said.

The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program is in every state and Washington, D.C.

Kim said he is like many Americans and doing his best to ensure his aging parents have the care they need with dignity and respect.

“It is heartbreaking to think of others who have been on this path and been betrayed by systems they put their faith in. This bill helps us be there for our seniors and their loved ones with an advocate that would serve as a critically important, trained, and well-informed part of their support system,” said Kim.

The Strengthening Advocacy for Long-Term Care Residents Act would improve the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program by:

• Instructing the Administration for Community Living (ACL) to establish categories of duties for volunteers and appropriate training requirements for volunteers based on those categories. Training guidelines should reflect the diversity of volunteer contributions to the Ombudsman program. This will make it easier to recruit and retain more Ombudsman program volunteers and continue to ensure volunteers have appropriate training.
• Reaffirming Congress’ intent that the Ombudsman program should be led by a full-time National Director. In 2019, a reorganization at the ACL resulted in the loss of this position. State and local ombudsmen have reported that the lack of a full-time National Director impedes coordination and distracts from the mission of the program.
• Requiring the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) to study and issue a report on the effectiveness of the LTC Ombudsman program, including a recommendation for the number of ombudsmen per LTC facility bed. A report would give states and the ACL better insight into the current needs of the program. In 1995, the Institute of Medicine (now part of NASEM) released a report recommending a staffing ratio of one ombudsman per 2,000 beds for the Ombudsman program. The staffing ratio has not been updated in the intervening three decades.