Public Comment Period on Assisted Living Licensure Concludes

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Bobbie Guidry

The public comment period on the proposed rules for assisted living closed on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 4:30 p.m. In addition to comments provided during the public hearing held Jan. 19 and 20, over 275 were submitted to the administrative law judge (ALJ) on the topic of assisted living licensure.

Many LeadingAge Minnesota members provided comments based on experiences as providers and consumers. Your advocacy is greatly appreciated and the comments and concerns you shared be a valuable resource as the rule is finalized.

Yesterday, alongside our partners in the Long-Term Care Imperative, we submitted additional comments addressing the cost of assisted living licensure, both the impact of the rule and the statute. We used the results of our cost study from last fall to estimate the cost of various components including emergency preparedness requirements, license fees and numerous other components.

While we support licensure and increased protections for aging Minnesotans, there are issues in the proposed rules that require further consideration and clarification. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has heard and responded with favorable comments on several items frequently raised by providers.

MDH has indicated that the definition of elopement will be adjusted to apply to only those identified at risk due to needs identified in their assessment rather than to any person living in the setting. The Department proposes to modify the definition to read: “Elopement” means a resident who lacks self-preservation skills leaves the premises or a safe area without necessary supervision to do so.”

Related to providing training “certificates” for each area of competency demonstrated, MDH has noted that any documentation of training that meets the requirements of the proposed rule will be accepted as proof of compliance, whether or not the documentation is expressly labeled as a certificate.

Finally, regarding posting the staffing schedule daily on each floor, MDH has indicated that they intend to modify this proposal so that the schedule is required to be posted in each building, rather than on each floor of each building.

Many issues in the proposed rule and the statute remain to be addressed and clarified and our advocacy work continues. 

We now enter a rebuttal comment period from Feb. 10 – 16, 2021. This will allow commenters to respond to other comments filed during the initial comment period.

The ALJ will then take all the comments and other materials submitted and evaluate the rules to determine whether the agency has met the standard and demonstrated that the rules are needed and reasonable. If the ALJ determines that the agency has not met the legal and procedural requirements, the rules are submitted to the Chief ALJ. If the Chief ALJ supports the ALJ, the agency may not adopt the rule until the defects are corrected. Once the ALJ approves the rules, the agency may submit them to the governor and take other procedural steps for final adoption.

If the ALJ and the Chief ALJ determine the agency has not established the need or reasonableness for the rules, the rules are submitted to the Legislative Coordinating Commission and to the House and Senate Government Operations committees for comment. After seeking these comments, the agency may adopt the rules.

At this time, we anticipate the assisted living licensure rules to be finalized near the end of March. Many issues in the proposed rule and the statute remain to be addressed and clarified and our advocacy work continues. On Friday, MDH will reconvene the assisted living stakeholder group to continue discussing identified issues toward possible resolution.