Position Papers
The Participating Organizations and Consumer Members of PALCA have drafted the following Position Statements:
Assessment Support Plan
In order to ensure that resident needs are identified and appropriately addressed, their needs must be properly assessed and support plans must be fully developed.
Freedom Choice Providers
PALCA is opposed to any limitation on a resident's choice of provider, including physician, psychiatrist, specialist, pharmacy, home health agency, nursing agency, medical equipment provider, physical therapist, occupational therapist and others.
Informed Consent Resident Rights
Our overarching recommendations are twofold. First, every residents’ right that exists in code regulations and any additional rights that should exist specific to assisted living must be clearly articulated in a “residents’ rights” section. Second, the rights should be organized by the chronology of the events of residency and articulate those rights affecting admission, residency and discharge.
Living Unit
The PA Assisted Living Consumer Alliance believes that consumers must be provided with adequate living space in order to live comfortably and safely in an assisted living facility. We believe this means that a living unit must have at least 250 square feet of space, excluding the closets and bathroom, among other requirements.
PALCA Public Funding Position Statement
All Pennsylvanians can choose, if provided with the necessary supports and services, to remain in their own homes*. Sometimes the lack of accessible or available home and community based services, affordable housing and housing supports is the only reason a consumer moves to an institutional setting. PALCA wants to ensure that assisted living is an option and not a default position any consumer falls into when preferred options cannot be afforded.
Position Statement on Dual Licensure
PALCA believes that any facility that wants to call itself assisted living or offer assisted living must meet the full licensure requirements for an assisted living facility as established under 55 PA Code 2800.
Position Statement on Grandfathering and Waivers
The Pennsylvania Assisted Living Consumer Alliance believes there must be no grandfathering of any facilities into the new requirements. Grandfathering has an unacceptable universality to it, meaning that the pool (or some subset of the pool) of existing personal care homes would get licensed as assisted living facilities regardless of any number of reasons why they wouldn’t satisfy the assisted living requirements.
Summary Core Package Services
PALCA members believe that a defined “base core package” of services is critical to consumer understanding of what it is that they are purchasing from any given assisted living facility. A defined base “independent” core package and a defined base “assisted living” core package will help with stability and predictability of costs to providers and to residents. It will also help consumers compare apples to apples when evaluating facilities in their area.
