SB 1027

The bill allows a patient's representative to consent to an admission of an

incapacitated individual from a hospital to a nursing home or community-based

residential facility without a petition for guardianship or protective placement and

allows a patient's representative to make health care decisions and authorize

expenditures related to health care on behalf of an incapacitated individual without

certain time limitations that are imposed under current law if certain conditions are

met. Under current law, an individual who is either related to an incapacitated

individual as provided under current law or is an adult close friend of an

incapacitated individual may consent to admission, directly from a hospital to a

nursing home or community-based residential facility, of the incapacitated

individual who does not have a valid power of attorney for health care and who has

not been adjudicated incompetent in this state if certain conditions apply, including

that the individual for whom admission is sought is not diagnosed as

developmentally disabled or as having a mental illness at the time of the proposed

admission, that the incapacitated individual does not verbally object to or otherwise

actively protest the admission, and that petitions for guardianship for the individual

and for protective placement of the individual are filed prior to the proposed

admission. An individual who consents to admission of an incapacitated individual

may make health care decisions to the same extent as a guardian of the person and

authorize expenditures related to health care to the same extent as a guardian of the

estate until 60 days after the admission to the facility, discharge of the incapacitated

individual from the facility, or appointment of a guardian for the incapacitated

individual, whichever occurs first. The bill allows a patient's representative to

consent to an admission of an incapacitated individual from a hospital to a nursing

home or community-based residential facility as provided under current law

without petitions for guardianship or protective placement of the incapacitated

individual being filed if certain conditions apply, including that the patient's

representative promptly notifies all of the incapacitated individual's family

members that can be readily contacted that the patient's representative may make

decisions or authorize expenditures on the incapacitated individual's behalf, that the

patient's representative provides a written statement to the discharging hospital

that contains certain information, and that the facility to which the incapacitated

individual is admitted notifies a representative of the Board on Aging and Long Term

Care of the admission. Further, the bill allows a patient's representative to make

health care decisions and authorize expenditures related to health care without the

time limitations that apply to other direct admissions under current law if the

patient's representative satisfies the conditions for admission provided under the

bill. The authority of a patient's representative to make health care decisions and

authorize expenditures related to health care under the bill ends if a court appoints

a guardian to make such decisions.