Legislation

The 2021 legislative year began on January 11 and adjourned for the year on September 10. The Assembly introduced 1,811 measures, and the Senate introduced 965. Of these, the Governor signed or allowed to become law without his signature 770 bills and vetoed 66. Most of the chaptered measures become effective on January 1, 2022.

This report provides a summary of chaptered legislation for the 2021 legislative year that relates to the Master Plan for Aging.

Goal 1: Housing for All Ages and Stages

• SB 591
  (Becker, Chapter 364, Statutes of 2021) Senior citizens: intergenerational housing developments.
  This bill permits the establishment of intergenerational housing developments that include older adults along with caregivers and transition age youth.
  
  

Goal 2: Health Reimagined

• AB 323
  (Kalra, Chapter 458, Statutes of 2021) Long-term health facilities.
  This bill changes the standard for the California Department of Public Health when issuing penalties against certain long-term care facilities for violations that result in the death of a resident and increases the minimum civil penalties that can be assessed against those facilities for various violations.
  
  
• AB 570
  (Santiago, Chapter 468, Statutes of 2021) Dependent parent health care coverage.
  This bill requires an individual health plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2022, that provides dependent coverage to make dependent coverage available to a qualifying parent or stepparent.
  
  
• AB 749
  (Nazarian, Chapter 586, Statutes of 2021) Skilled nursing facilities: medical director certification.
  This bill prohibits a skilled nursing facility from contracting with a person as a medical director if the person is not, or will not be within five years, certified by the American Board of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine as a Certified Medical Director.
  
  
• AB 849
  (Reyes, Chapter 471, Statutes of 2021) Skilled nursing facilities: intermediate care facilities: liability.
  This bill amends the damages that can be sought by a current or former resident or patient of a skilled nursing facility or intermediate care facility for violation of the resident or patient’s rights from $500 per lawsuit to $500 per violation, with no limit on the number of violations that can be brought forward.
  
  
• AB 1042
  (Jones-Sawyer, Chapter 475, Statutes of 2021) Skilled nursing facilities: unpaid penalties: related parties.
  This bill authorizes the California Department of Public Health, when a skilled nursing facility (SNF) fails to pay certain penalties, to take legal action to recover the unpaid penalty amount from the SNF's financial interest in a related party.
  
  
• AB 1280
  (Irwin, Chapter 478, Statutes of 2021) California Hospice Licensure Act of 1990.
  This bill prohibits a hospice referral source from receiving, directly or indirectly, any form of payment in exchange for referring a patient to hospice provider or facility and requires a hospice to provide verbal and written notice of the patient's rights and responsibilities in a language and manner the person understands before providing care.
  
  
• SB 48
  (Limón, Chapter 484, Statutes of 2021) Medi-Cal: annual cognitive health assessment.
  This bill requires an annual cognitive health assessment be a covered benefit for Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are 65 years of age or older and not otherwise eligible for a similar assessment as part of the Medicare program. This bill also requires the Department of Health Care Services to determine the training and validated tools for Medi-Cal providers to render and receive payment for the covered benefit.
  
  
• SB 650
  (Stern, Chapter 493, Statutes of 2021) Skilled nursing facilities.
  This bill requires an organization that operates, conducts, owns, manages, or maintains a skilled nursing facility (SNF) to prepare and file an annual consolidated financial report with the Department of Health Care Access and Information, requires the financial report to include data from all related parties in which the organization has an ownership or control interest of 5% or more and that provides any services or supplies to the SNF, and requires the financial report to be reviewed by a certified public accountant.
  
  

Goal 3: Inclusion and Equity, not Isolation

• AB 133
  (Committee on Budget, Chapter 143, Statutes of 2021) Health.
  This bill, among other things, directs the California Department of Public Health to work with the Department of Aging to establish up to five demonstration projects that provide clinical and non-clinical services to older people living with HIV.
  
  
• AB 665
  (Garcia, Chapter 469, Statutes of 2021) Care facilities: internet access.
  This bill requires residential facilities serving adults, residential care facilities for persons with chronic life-threatening illness, and residential care facilities for the elderly with existing internet service to provide at least one internet access device, such as a computer, smart phone, tablet, or other device for clients and residents to use.
  
  
• AB 636
  (Maienschein, Chapter 621, Statutes of 2021) Financial abuse of elder or dependent adults.
  This bill authorizes adult protective services agencies to share information related to elder or dependent adult abuse with a federal law enforcement agency for the purpose of investigating a financial crime, and with a local code enforcement agency for the purpose of investigating an unlicensed care facility where the health and safety of an elder or dependent adult resident is at risk.
  
  
• AB 1194
  (Low, Chapter 417, Statutes of 2021) Conservatorship.
  This bill amends the Guardianship-Conservatorship Law to provide additional protections and rights for conservatees and requires better coordination between the courts and the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau within the Department of Consumer Affairs. This bill also requires a study of the state's conservatorship system be delivered to the legislature by January 12, 2024.
  
  
• AB 1243
  (Rubio, Chapter 273, Statutes of 2021) Protective orders: elder and dependent adults.
  This bill provides that restraining orders for elder or dependent adults may include specified remedies related to financial abuse or isolation.
  
  
• SB 129
  (Skinner, Chapter 69, Statutes of 2021) Budget Act of 2021.
  This bill, among other things, approves reparations of up to $25,000 per survivor of California's state-sponsored involuntary sterilization program that took place in women’s prisons between 1909-1979.
  
  
• SB 258
  (Laird, Chapter 132, Statutes of 2021) Aging.
  This bill adds human immunodeficiency virus status to the existing list of noneconomic factors that determine "greatest social need" for services under the Older Californians Act. CDA targets services to those with the greatest economic and/or social needs.
  
  
• SB 796
  (Bradford, Chapter 435, Statutes of 2021) State parks: state beaches: County of Los Angeles: Manhattan State Beach: deed restrictions: taxation.
  This bill enables Los Angeles County to immediately begin the transfer of Bruce's Beach back to descendants of original owners, Wila and Charles Bruce, from whom the land was seized in 1924 via eminent domain by the City of Manhattan Beach.
  
  

Goal 4: Caregiving that Works

• SB 170
  (Skinner, Chapter 240, Statutes of 2021) Budget Act of 2021.
  This bill, among other things, authorizes CDA to utilize funds provided through the federal Home and Community-Based Services American Rescue Plan Fund to develop the Direct Care Workforce Training and Stipends Program which would further develop career pathways for non-In-Home Supportive Services direct care workers to help increase skills, job satisfaction, and retention, as well as opportunities to advance on career and wage ladders.
  
  

Goal 5: Affording Aging

• SB 639
  (Durazo, Chapter 339, Statutes of 2021) Minimum wages: persons with disabilities.
  This bill prohibits employers from paying workers with disabilities less than the California minimum wage by phasing out certificate programs that permit subminimum wages for these employees.