Connecticut hospices obtain carveout from sweeping safety bill

Connecticut hospices obtain carveout from sweeping safety bill
McKnight's Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/15/24
Grassroots advocacy paid off for Connecticut’s hospice providers. Last week, they successfully obtained a carveout from Senate Bill 1, which requires home-based healthcare providers to run background checks on all potential clients. “It was basically a total victory,” Barbara Pearce, chief executive officer of The Connecticut Hospice and the main proponent calling for a carveout, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “You’re never going to defeat Senate Bill One, because they said - in naming it - it’s their top priority. We just tried to take hospice off, and we did.” ... The bill would have unintentionally limited patients’ access to hospice care, Pearce said. By the time a background check could be conducted on a client, it may be too late to provide effective care for the patient. Furthermore, current staffing challenges hospices face would make compliance even harder, she noted.