Sponsors (137)
The bill restores and protects residents' access to essential caregivers and strengthens visitation appeals and oversight—improving social support and rights—at the cost of added infection risk, higher facility administrative/compliance burdens, and potential downstream regulatory effects on costs and clinical practice.
Seniors and long‑term care residents retain the right to at least one daily in‑person designated essential caregiver during emergency visitation restrictions, preserving social support and hands‑on assistance.
Establishes an appeals process and time limits on facility denials (generally max 7 days, 14 with State approval), strengthening residents' visitation rights and programmatic oversight of restrictive practices.
Documents measurable declines in resident outcomes (pressure ulcers, weight loss, depression), and large staff losses, providing evidence to justify targeted quality‑improvement, oversight, and workforce recruitment/retention efforts to improve care.
Allowing daily in‑person caregiver access during public‑health emergencies could raise infection risk for other residents if safety agreements are imperfectly followed.
Facilities may face higher operational and administrative costs to implement safety agreements, manage daily caregiver access, run appeals, and comply with new oversight—which could be passed on to residents or taxpayers or strain facility budgets.
The bill places more compliance and legal risk on facilities by making them responsible for justifying denials in appeals, increasing liability and administrative burden for care providers.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Requires nursing-type facilities to allow residents to designate essential caregivers with daily in-person access during emergency visitation restrictions, with limited exceptions and appeal rights.
Introduced December 16, 2025 by Claudia Tenney · Last progress December 16, 2025
Requires nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, and certain inpatient rehabilitation units to let residents designate one or more “essential caregivers” who must be allowed daily in-person access during emergency periods that restrict normal visitation. Facilities would have narrow, time-limited grounds to deny access, must use written safety agreements, provide warnings and written explanations for denials, offer appeal routes through State survey agencies, and follow HHS regulations to be issued after stakeholder consultation; most rules take effect two years after enactment.