A Florida Senate panel has instructed the Agency for Health Care Administration to draft legislation – fast – that would allow the state to shut down unlicensed assisted-living facilities as quickly as possible.
Members of the Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs were irate over reports that many unlicensed facilities are still in business.
Newspapers have reported that unlicensed ALFs are failing to provide basic health care, safety or cleanliness – and that state regulators are missing or ignoring their transgressions.
State Senator Eleanor Sobel, the Hollywood Democrat who chairs the committee, says Florida should send the message that it will protect seniors in ALFs.
"It's these bad ones, these unlicensed ones that give the good ones bad reputations", Sobel said. "And it hurts our image in terms of being a place baby boomers are coming to, and we have to fix this problem."
Sobel says working with prosecutors and law enforcement would help.
On Tuesday the Senate panel unanimously passed a reform bill that would beef up fines and sanctions for assisted living facilities, including doubling the fines for repeated serious violations.
It also would require the state to create a rating system for them by November 2014.