PROTECT Long Term Care Facilities Act

Protecting Residents with Oversight, Transparency, and Enforcement for Compassionate Treatment in Long Term Care Facilities Act or the PROTECT Long Term Care Facilities Act

This bill establishes a series of requirements for Medicare skilled nursing facilities and Medicaid nursing facilities during declared emergencies relating to infectious disease outbreaks.

Specifically, the bill provides statutory authority for certain COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) reporting requirements and requires facilities to report similar information with respect to any infectious disease outbreak that results in a state or national emergency. The bill requires compliance surveys to be conducted in accordance with a specified schedule during such outbreaks and subjects facilities to civil penalties for outbreak-specific violations, as determined under criteria from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The bill also provides funds for state survey agencies to conduct related investigations.