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Improving oversight of assisted living facilities will be the hot topic at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging this afternoon. The “Ensuring quality and oversight in assisted living” hearing is a direct result of a media investigation that uncovered multiple violations at various assisted living facilities in Florida, allegedly resulting in deaths.

The hearing will examine oversight at both the federal and state level, as well as enforcement abilities of organizations such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It will be chaired Aging Committee member Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL).

The witness list includes Barbara Edwards, Director, Disabled & Elderly Health Programs Group, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Robert Jenkens, Director at the Green House Project; Steve Maag, Director, Resident Communities, Leading Age; Larry Polivka, Scholar in Residence, Claude Pepper Center; and Martha Roherty, Executive Director, National Association of State Units on Aging.

Also testifying will be Alfredo Navas, the youngest son of former ALF resident and drowning victim Aurora Navas. According to a Miami Herald investigative report, Aurora Navas was  “among dozens of frail and elderly people who died at the hands of their caretakers in ALFs across Florida in the past decade without any investigation by the lead regulator overseeing the homes, the Agency for Health Care Administration.”

For more on the Miami Herald investigation, click here.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/16/2317509/assisted-living-facility-blamed.html#ixzz1cUHPGnhd