District of Columbia: DC Council, Ward 1

Candidates

Jim Graham, Democrat
Edward C. Troy, Statehood Green

Issues: Nursing Home Quality | Predatory Lending |

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Question

Do you support or oppose legislation requiring DC nursing homes to meet the minimum staffing levels recommended by the Federal Government to prevent harm to residents?

Do you support earmarked funding to increase and train additional nursing home inspectors?

AARP Response

In 2002, the House Government Reform Committee released a study on the quality of DC nursing home care. The report found that three-quarters of nursing homes in the District failed to provide the quality of care the law requires and families expect. Staffing levels and enforcement were major Committee concerns. The Federal Government recommends 4.13 hours of direct nursing care per resident per day as the minimum staffing level to prevent such serious harm as bedsores, weight loss and infection. The DC government recently proposed 3.5 hours per resident per day. Not all this time has to be devoted to direct nursing care.

AARP supports increasing the hours of direct nursing care per resident and additional funding for more inspectors and training.

Issue	Yes	No	Unclear
Supports increasing staffing levels
Supports adequate funding for inspectors
Supports adequate training for inspectors

Candidate Response: Jim Graham

I would support legislation that would require nursing homes to meet minimum staffing levels as recommended by the Federal Government.

We also need to look at the inspection process and how our city inspectors are interfacing, if at all, with Federal Medicaid inspectors. Are our inspections independent of Medicaid inspections or are we relying on Medicaid to do our job? How frequent are inspections, announced and unannounced? All our local inspectors should be adequately trained in the law and in identifying patient neglect.

I support earmarked funding for the training and funding of nursing home inspectors. How that would be done is an issue that needs to be thoughtfully addressed. Would the District charge a fee for the service, would we increase licensing fees or fines and dedicate any or all of these monies to support inspections? That is an issue that needs careful crafting and deliberation.

Candidate Response: Edward C. Troy

It is absolutely critical that the standards of DC nursing homes actually exceed federal standards. The reasons include: the large numbers of seniors that are poor, and the closing of DC General. The percentage of seniors may not be that high relative to the situation existing in some states, but the percentage of seniors at or below the poverty level is very high.

Many seniors also face extortionate prescription costs on a fixed income that should be mitigated by Medicaid and Medicare. This coupled with legal expenses stemming from predatory lending and helping younger generations with legal help, means that personal and private (estate) nursing home funding may not be available. Therefore it is critical that we have the services in the nursing home and staff necessary to help and aid seniors, who have already done their jobs as parents and citizens, for their families, our communities and country.

For all of those who are concerned about seniors in your families or are seniors themselves this is an easy question. The funding of the inspector training and increasing the numbers should be earmarked for a level to ensure safety, care and respect.

Question

Do you support or oppose amending the law so that all lenders are held to the same strong standard of consumer protections?

AARP Response

Predatory lenders target minorities and older people. Predatory loans include deceptive marketing practices such as making loans without regard to the borrower’s ability to repay the loan, failing to disclose terms such as balloon payments,; and refinancing loans and charging excessive fees each time.

The Council passed a predatory lending law that exempts certain lenders covered by a similar federal law. Unfortunately, federal law does not provide the same strong consumer protections as the DC law.

AARP supports laws with strong consumer protections which restrict and prohibit predatory lending practices by all lenders.

Issue	Yes	No	Unclear
Supports all lenders be covered by DC law
Supports amending DC law, removing exemptions

Candidate Response: Jim Graham

I have a strong record in this regard. I opposed the exemptions contained in the recently passed law. As such I do support an amendment to remove the exemptions and to cover all DC lenders. AARP DC is well aware of my vigorous support for their point of view on this issue.

Candidate Response: Edward C. Troy

There should be ZERO exemptions, all lenders should be subject to the same laws. Those laws should be amended so that jail time and quadruple penalties are automatic and even assets seized. The laws must be very aggressive towards predators and vigorously enforced.