✨ Ombudsman

In Virginia the General Assembly mandated a study to examine the operations and level of services provided in independent living communities, and to evaluate whether the Commonwealth of Virginia should further regulate these communities.  When the report of the study was presented to the Virginia General Assembly in January 2019, one of the eight recommendations was to “Establish and manage an Office of Independent Living Community Ombudsman at the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), and a complaint line to receive, record and respond to concerns by or on behalf of residents.”

Even though for 45-years Virginia has supported ombudsmen for assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, yet in 2019 and 2020 the General Assembly did not pass the Independent Living Ombudsman Bills.  These bills were endorsed and promoted by the Virginia Continuing Care Residents Association (VaCCRA), but strongly opposed by LeadingAge Virginia.  Several delegates will submit another (3^rd) Independent Living Ombudsman Bill to the 2021 General Assembly.

The primary purpose of this Forum is to share experiences related to state legislatures and to determine how many states have Independent Living Ombudsmen and other CCRC regulations.  How did these states get legislation passed that provides CCRC residents with increased protections and a greater role in the governance of their communities?  For the states that have ombudsmen, how well is the program working? 

Hi:

Thanks for creating this important forum. I hope to see information about legislation, regulation for each state (maybe comparisons) and all the other important info that you mentioned.

I would love to subscribe to this forum (to be notified when something is posted to it). This doesn't seemed to be enabled as under Forum Memberships (under one's Profile) there is a message that states "This forum does not send emails", which means that it was not enabled by the administrator to provide this function. The way the website is setup (or teh way ClubExpress works), the administrator has to enable each new forum, otherwise it doesn't happen. If that's not done, the forums will receive less traffic because people are not notified about new threads and posts. Please ask the administrator to make this capability available to users of this forum. Thanks.

For about 6months by now I have been trying to get an answer and help to be able to get notifications from the Ombudsman forum, which is not setup to do that. I did send to teh websmaster the instructions I got from ClubExpress for him/her. Any way to make that happen? Thanks.

This may be helpful. VA and NJ links. If a state already has a law for those in Personal Care/Assisted Living, say, but not residents in Independent Living, the effort could be to extend a Bill of Rights (or whatever law) to residents in Independent Living.

VA State Bills for ombudsman and requirement to have resident on CCRC boards: https://www.vaccra.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=526131&module_id=413489

VA Bill of Rights for Residents: https://www.vaccra.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=526131&module_id=414945

NJ Bill of Rights for Independent Residents: https://www.fvres.org/Documents/NJ-Bill-of-Rights-CCRC-ILU.pdf

NJ Steps taken to get Bill of Rights: https://oranjccrc.org/legislation/2007-ccrc-resident-organization-rights-bill/

NJ Explanation history of NJ Bill of Rights: https://oranjccrc.org/legislation/2013-bill-of-rights-for-independent-ccrc-residents/

Linda Kilcrease

Resident of a CCRC

Another reason something needs to be done. The following is my response to the Manager, Company Licensing and Regulatory Compliance, Financial Regulation Division at the Virginia State Corporation Commission:

If the Commission has no jurisdiction over the issues raised in my Complaint, "A Guide to the Regulation of Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Virginia”, page 8, 

Residents are afforded the following rights under Chapter 49:

To self-organize

• Residents shall have the right of self-organization.

• No retaliatory conduct is permitted against a resident for participating in a residents’

organization or filing a complaint.

offers no protection to residents of CCRCs.

One does not require a definition of “self-organize” to conclude that Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council — created and operated according to the following three documents is unambiguously not self-organized:

Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council Constitution & Bylaws (7 pages)

Resident Advisory Council Handbook (13 pages)

Ashby Ponds Resident Advisory Council Policies and Procedures (12 pages)

If the “preponderance of evidence” is the standard for resolving disputes, it can be achieved without a definition of “self-organize”. The Commission or your office could rule on Item #2 of the requested "RESOLUTION OF COMPLAINT”.

Rights stated in Code of Virginia, § 38.2-4910 shall not be granted to Ashby Ponds’ residents that are not self-organized.

Enver Masud