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Committee advances bill allowing certain veterans nonprofits to create designated nursing home beds
Summary
The Senate committee reported SB 788 favorably after sponsor Senator Tranow said the bill would let 501(c)(3) nonprofit veteran retirement communities create veteran-and-spouse-designated skilled nursing beds and transfer certificates of need within 100 miles.
SB 788 — a bill to let certain nonprofit veteran retirement communities establish veteran-and-spouse-designated nursing home beds — was reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Military, Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security on a unanimous roll call.
The bill, explained by Senator Tranow, would authorize the executive director of the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs to permit a 501(c)(3) nonprofit retirement community that operates housing exclusively for veterans, their spouses and surviving spouses to create veteran-and-spouse-designated skilled nursing facility beds. The bill also allows transfer of the certificate-of-need beds for that purpose within a limit of 100 miles.
Senator Tranow told the committee SB 788 “would authorize the executive director of the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs to allow a 501(c)(3) nonprofit retirement community operating on a campus with housing for only veterans, their spouses, and surviving spouses to create veteran and spouse designated nursing home beds in skilled nursing facilities.” He later said the measure could be “a beginning of something that would help us in the future” and noted an approximate shortfall of “somewhere around 4,000 beds” in the region.
Brooke McClain, chief executive officer of the Air Force Enlisted Village, told the committee her organization supports the bill. "We are very much in support of this bill," McClain said, adding the organization operates independent and assisted living on its campus in the Shalimar/Fort Walton Beach–Destin area but cannot currently provide skilled nursing onsite.
There were no recorded questions from committee members during the presentation and no formal amendments to the bill in this hearing. Lois, the clerk, called the roll; Senators Burgess, Jones, Sharif, Schoonau, Vice Chair Collins and Chair Wright were recorded as voting yes. By that vote, the committee reported SB 788 favorably.
The committee did not set implementation details in the hearing. Senator Tranow urged continued private–public partnership work with the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs to expand capacity.
SB 788 will proceed to the next step in the legislative process as reported out of committee.
