Committee advances bill consolidating long-term care licensing boards

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee gave House Bill 28 a do-pass recommendation to the Senate, advancing legislation that consolidates two licensing boards for long-term care into a single Board of Long Term Care Administrators.

Senator Carl Bjerke, the bill’s sponsor, said the measure combines the Residential Care Administrators Act and the Nursing Home Administrators Act into the Long Term Care Administrators Act and creates a single board to regulate functions previously carried out by two separate boards. "This bill has no fiscal impact on the division and dedicated funds and no impact to the general fund or federal funds," Bjerke said, and he told the committee industry stakeholders were supportive of the consolidation.

There was no committee debate recorded on policy details. Senator Harris moved to send House Bill 28 to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation; Senator Kaiser seconded. The committee approved the motion by voice vote. The transcript records ayes and no recorded opposition but does not provide a roll-call tally.

If enacted, the bill would reorganize licensing and oversight for administrators of residential care and nursing home facilities under a single board. The sponsor and the committee record described the change as an administrative consolidation rather than a substantive policy shift.