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AHCA President Hal Daub Urges
Immediate Support for New Bill to Equip Nation's Nursing Homes
With Automatic Fire Sprinkler Systems
Jeff Smokler, American Health Care Association
August 24, 2004
Hal Daub, President and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), today urged Congress to support new federal legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-CT), the Nursing Facility Fire Safety Act of 2004, which will ensure every nursing home in America is equipped or retrofitted with automatic fire sprinkler systems within five years.
"We want to thank Congressman Larson for championing this important nursing home safety issue at the national level," stated Daub in a conference call following a news conference in Hartford, CT conducted by Rep. Larson and Toni Fatone, Vice-President of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities. "What occurred in Congressman Larson's district is a tragedy, and the Nursing Home Fire Protection Act will help ensure this doesn't happen again," he continued, referring to a tragic 2003 fire at Hartford's Greenwood Health Center.
"AHCA's nearly 10,000 members are committed to quality and excellence in their long term care facilities and, to that end, ensuring the safety and security of our patients and residents is of paramount importance," said Daub. He said that, historically, the current life safety code requirements have been consistent with the fire safety records of nursing homes nationwide. Yet, when it became clear the regulations were outdated, AHCA urged specific changes.
AHCA has sent the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) -- the organization that publishes the Life Safety Code and that informs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) regulatory decisions regarding life safety -- an amendment to the proposed 2006 code calling for mandatory and full sprinkling of every nursing facility in the nation. NFPA accepted the amendment and the upcoming publication will include the AHCA amendment. It is then up to CMS to put the regulation into effect.
"Congressman Larson's bill is an avenue to ensure AHCA's vision for improved fire safety in America's nursing homes become law, and this legislation merits strong, bipartisan support when the U.S. House of Representatives reconvenes," said the AHCA President and CEO.
Key provisions of the Nursing Facility Fire Safety Act of 2004:
. A federal requirement that all nursing homes be fully equipped with automatic fire sprinkler systems within five years of the legislation's enactment;
. The bill provides for parallel Medicare and Medicaid funding for sprinkling of nursing facilities, to be amortized over five years;
. After five years, facilities that have not been equipped with automatic fire sprinklers shall be found out of compliance with federal law, and subject to penalty including closure;
A recent study completed by national accounting firm BDO Seidman found that reimbursements for Medicaid -- the payer of two thirds of all nursing home care - are, nationally, $11.55 less than the actual cost of providing care.
An additional threat to quality, the AHCA President and CEO observed, would be forcing facilities to comply with the sprinkling mandate sooner than is logistically feasible. In many cases, sprinkling installation will be a complex effort that could involve both the relocation of patients in addition to substantial structural work on the facility itself.
"Taking into account the many complexities involved in achieving our goal of fully sprinkling all of the nation's nursing homes, the compliance provisions in the Nursing Facility Fire Safety Act are fair, realistic and achievable," concluded Daub.
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