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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Lawrence Curry |
  
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House passes Curry bill regarding regulations for small hospices
HARRISBURG, July 1 – The House of Representatives has unanimously passed state Rep. Lawrence Curry's bill (H.B. 2629) that would authorize the Pennsylvania Department of Health to create license regulations for small residential hospices.
Currently, smaller hospice homes are required to meet the same construction and life safety codes that apply to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Given the unique qualities of these smaller residential hospices, most cannot meet the current nursing facility standards. They are instead being licensed as personal care homes, which limits their range of services provided to patients.
"Small, freestanding residential hospices are homes that serve individuals who have elected hospice care but for whom dying at home is not possible due to lack of a suitable home or family support," said Curry, D-Montgomery/Phila. "Regulating them as personal care homes is unsatisfactory to both the facility operators and the regulators, and limits the ability of the hospice to provide inpatient care and be reimbursed appropriately for the services they provide."
House Bill 2629 requires the Pennsylvania Department of Health to promulgate regulations that define a "small residential hospice" as a facility licensed for 22 or fewer beds (larger institutions would be required to meet the institutional health care facility standards; and, subject to the approval of the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, permit a small residential hospice facility to comply with the NFPA 101 standards for Residential and Boarding Care rather than the Health Care Facility standards.
House Bill 2629 has the support of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, and the governor's Office of Health Care Reform. It now moves to the Senate for consideration.
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