No. HB 651
Filed under Healthcare.
Electronic Monitoring Devices in Long-term Care Facilities; Defines "electronic monitoring device" & "representative"; authorizes resident, or his or her representative, of nursing home facility or assisted living facility, respectively, to install & use electronic monitoring device in resident's room if specified conditions are met; provides for consent of resident living in shared room with resident who intends to install device; authorizes other resident or his or her representative to impose conditions on consent; provides for withdrawal of consent & modification of conditions; requires AHCA to adopt forms by rule; prohibits facilities from denying admission or otherwise discriminating against resident for installing electronic monitoring device; provides administrative penalty; provides criminal penalty for unlawfully obstructing, tampering with, or destroying electronic monitoring device or recording made by such device; specifies who may view or listen to images broadcast or recorded by electronic monitoring device.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDNursing home and assisted living residents (or their representative) may install a video-only camera in their own room, so long as they notify the facility in writing and pay for the device, installation, and its internet connection.
A roommate can block the camera unless the facility can move the requesting resident elsewhere, or the roommate can allow it with conditions, like pointing it away from their own bed, that must be followed as long as they share the room.
Facilities cannot refuse to admit, discharge, or otherwise retaliate against a resident for using a monitoring device, on penalty of a $500 fine per violation, and tampering with or destroying a device or its recording is a criminal misdemeanor.
Only the resident, their representative, law enforcement, or someone the resident specifically authorizes may intentionally view the footage, and nobody may publish it publicly online. Posting a notice that a room is monitored is optional for the facility.
AIA resident or their representative may install and use a camera in the resident's own room in a nursing home or assisted living facility, once they notify the facility in writing on the agency's standard form.
AIA facility may not deny admission, discharge a resident, or otherwise discriminate or retaliate against a resident for choosing to install and use a monitoring device. The agency must fine a violating facility $500 per violation.
AIIf a shared-room roommate refuses to consent to a camera, the facility must try to move the requesting resident to another available room. A roommate may instead consent with conditions, such as aiming the device away from them, which must be followed for as long as they share the room.
AIAnyone other than the resident or their representative who intentionally obstructs, tampers with, or destroys the device or a recording it made commits a first-degree misdemeanor.
AIOnly the resident, their representative, law enforcement personnel, or someone the resident or representative specifically authorizes may intentionally view the images broadcast or recorded by the device; anyone else who does so violates the section.
AINobody may intentionally publish the images broadcast or recorded by the device, or otherwise make them available on the internet in a way the general public can access.
AIThe resident or representative, not the facility, must pay for the device itself plus its installation, maintenance, removal, and internet access; only the electricity to run it is excluded from that requirement.
AIThe statute defines an electronic monitoring device so that it can only capture video; it is barred from broadcasting or recording any audio at all.