Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities - Notification of Investigations and Establishment of the Health Care Quality Improvement Initiative
HB945 makes two main changes to Maryland’s oversight of long-term care facilities. First, it amends the nursing home complaint investigation process so that when the Maryland Department of Health opens an investigation into a complaint alleging actual harm, the Department must promptly notify the local health department in the county where the nursing home is located and, to the extent practicable and allowed by federal law, consult and coordinate with that local health department on the response. The bill also preserves existing expedited timelines for complaints involving immediate jeopardy and clarifies that local health departments are not taking over the Department’s statutory oversight role.
Second, the bill creates the Health Care Quality Improvement Initiative, a temporary task force charged with studying ways to improve quality of care, affordability, accessibility, transparency, and oversight in nursing homes and assisted living programs. The task force is directed to examine workforce recruitment and retention, staff training, oversight of small assisted living programs, post-acute discharge issues, public data sharing, and the possible use of federal quality-improvement frameworks. It must meet regularly, gather input from stakeholders and families, issue public updates, and deliver preliminary and final reports to the Governor and General Assembly before the initiative sunsets in 2029.
The bill amends § 19-1408 of the Health-General Article to add a mandatory local-notification and consultation requirement for certain nursing home complaint investigations, while leaving the Department of Health as the primary regulator. It also expands reporting obligations related to nursing home surveys and creates a new temporary policy task force within the Maryland Department of Health structure to study nursing home and assisted living quality issues and recommend reforms. The measure affects the Department of Health, local health departments, the Office of Health Care Quality, nursing homes, assisted living programs, residents, families, and long-term care workers.
The bill appears to have broad bipartisan support and a generally favorable reception. It passed the House 122-0 and the Senate 43-0, indicating unanimous support in both chambers. The committee report was favorable with amendments, suggesting the bill was viewed positively while still being refined during the legislative process.
There is little evidence of major opposition in the available record. The main policy sensitivity is the balance between improving local coordination and avoiding any implication that county health departments would assume state oversight duties. Another potential area of discussion is the task force’s access to information: the bill limits it from receiving identifiable complaint files, protected health information, or survey evidence, while still allowing redacted deficiency statements. These provisions suggest concern about confidentiality, privacy, and preserving existing enforcement processes while still enabling broader system review.