FRANKFORT, Ky. — Lawmakers continue to learn as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves.
One thing they’ve learned is the mental and physical health of long-term care patients suffered due to COVID-19-related visitor restrictions. Senate Bill 100 aims to permanently change that.
Thursday, Rep. Michael Sarge Pollock, R-Campbellsville, presented SB 100 on the House floor on behalf of the primary sponsor Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville.
“This bill provides a strong infrastructure that allows families to be the critical care partners that they are,” Pollock said. “It maintains a role of a personal caregiver and their important role in the mental, physical and spiritual social well-being of the resident.”
During Thursday’s meeting of the House Health and Welfare Committee, Adams testified that SB 100 would make family members, guardians, friends, pastors, clergy and other individuals essential caregivers and would permanently allow them to visit residents of long term care, assisted living and mental health facilities.
Essential personal caregivers would have to follow safety guidelines set by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services during visitation.
Measures passed during the 2021 Regular Session and Special Session temporarily allowed long-term care patients an essential caregiver. But those provisions expire Jan. 31, Adams said.
On the House floor, Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, D-Lexington, said although she worries about a few loopholes in the bill, she supports SB 100 and recognizes long-term care facilities have struggled to find a delicate balance when it comes to allowing visitors and protecting residents from COVID-19.
“We know that these visitors provide significant amounts of hands-on care,” Stevenson said.
The Kentucky Senate unanimously approved SB 100 by a 35-0 vote last week. Due to a few changes made to the bill in the House, it will now go before the full Senate for concurrence.
If the Senate agrees with the changes, the measure will be sent to the governor’s desk for his signature or veto. An emergency clause in the bill means it would become law immediately upon his signature.