Advertisement
The Wisconsin Democrat, who heads the Senate’s Committee on Aging, was in
La Crosse on Friday to promote The Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act he introduced in the Senate.
He cited the success of a seven-state pilot project that kept more than 5,000 people with such histories from working at elderly care facilities.
La Crosse County was among four Wisconsin counties that took part in the pilot program.
Kohl’s proposal would allocate almost $100 million to establish a national registry that nursing homes and assisted living facilities can check to see if potential employees have been convicted of certain crimes,such as fraud and assault, or professionally disciplined in other states.
It also would cover costs related to background checks, so facilities wouldn’t have to pay to use the program, Kohl said.
“The problem is that from one state to the next ... there are people who apply for employment and gain employment in long-term care facilities who are not the right people,” Kohl said. “They have documented records of criminal abuse, emotional abuse, instability. They just aren’t supposed to be employed (there).”
The current system has no easy way for facilities to learn if applicants have records in other states, Kohl said.
As part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, parts of Wisconsin and six other states took part in a pilot project that established rules and registries and forced facilities to do background checks.
That pilot project comes to an end next month.
The success of the pilot project demonstrated a need for a nationwide registry, said Carol Kriemelmeyer, a regional ombudsman with the Wisconsin Board of Aging on Longterm Care.
“We need to make sure the people who take care of vulnerable adults are not perpetrators, they’re not predators, they’re not criminals ... We don’t need to employ someone until we know they are an upstanding person in a community,” Kriemelmeyer said.
The proposed bill is part of the larger Elder Justice Act, which is expected to be considered when Congress returns from its August recess.
Kohl said the program’s starting costs might be the only stumbling block facing the proposed legislation, but the benefits far outweigh the initial cost.
Dan Springer can be reached at dspringer@lacrossetribune.co or (608) 791-8269.
