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Senior Citizen Politics
Senate Aging Committee to Look at Challenges of
Improving Long-Term Care
Marks 20th Anniversary of Landmark Nursing
Home Reform Act
 April 28, 2007 A hearing by the Senate Special
Committee on Aging on Wednesday, May 2, will probe the progress that has
been made under the Nursing Home Reform Act often referred to as
OBRA'87. Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) says the committee will also explore
current and future challenges to attain a higher level of safety and
quality of care for senior citizens in long-term care facilities.
The Nursing Home Reform Act Turns Twenty: What
Has Been Accomplished, and What Challenges Remain? hearing will be a
10:30 a.m. in room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Appearing to testify will be the following:
Panel One:
● Kathryn Allen, Director of Health Care, U.S.
Government Accountability Office
The first panel will feature testimony by Allen
about the years of oversight work GAO has done in the areas of nursing
home quality and enforcement. Allen will also shed light on the
governments survey and cert system, which is charged with inspecting
and certifying nursing home facilities.
● James Randolph Farris, M.D., Regional
Administrator of the Dallas Office, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS)
Farris will also testify on the activities of CMS,
which is the government agency charged with executing the survey and
cert process, which requires that every nursing home facility is
inspected once every 15 months.
Panel Two:
● Dr. Charlene Harrington, Professor of Sociology
and Nursing at the University of California
Harrington will testify on the second panel.
Harrington was a member of the Institute of Medicine panel that released
a seminal report on the nursing home industry in 1986, the
recommendations of which helped spur Congress to enact the Nursing Home
Reform Act the following year.
● Alice H. Hedt, Executive Director of the
National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
Hedt, represents a prominent advocacy organization
that has successfully pushed for reforms within the industry.
● Mary Ousley, President of Ousley & Associates,
and former Chair of the American Health Care Association
Ousley is former chair of the American Health Care
Association, which represents for-profit and some non-profit nursing
homes
● Orlene Christie, Director of the Legislative
and Statutory Compliance Office, Michigan Department of Community Health
Christie will discuss how Michigan has implemented
a comprehensive statewide background check pilot program for long-term
care employees, and has experienced much success with their newly
formulated system.
Kohl is interested in establishing a similar
nationwide system of background checks for long-term care workers in
order to bring about further improvements in safety and quality in the
nursing home industry.
The hearing will be Webcast from the committee
webpage:
www.aging.senate.gov
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