1.This Act may be cited as the
Nursing Facility Fire Safety Act of
2009
.
2.Findings and
Sense of Congress
(a)Congress
finds the following:
(1)On February 26,
2003, a fire at a Hartford, Connecticut, nursing facility without an automatic
fire sprinkler system claimed the lives of 16 patients, and on September 27,
2003, a fire at a Nashville, Tennessee, nursing home without an automatic fire
sprinkler system claimed the lives of 15 patients.
(2)The National Fire
Protection Association finds no record of a multiple death fire in a nursing
facility equipped with an automatic fire sprinkler system.
(3)An estimated 1.5
million Americans reside in approximately 16,300 nursing facilities nationwide,
an estimated 20 to 30 percent of which lack an automatic fire sprinkler
system.
(4)Many nursing
facilities lack the financial capital to install sprinklers on their own and
must consider closure as an alternative to taking on large loans or other
financing options in order to install sprinklers.
(5)In a July 2004
report, the GAO found that the substantial loss of life in the Hartford
and Nashville fires could have been reduced or eliminated by the presence of
properly functioning automatic sprinkler systems
and that
Federal oversight of nursing home compliance with fire safety standards
is inadequate
.
(6)Recognizing that
automatic fire sprinkler systems greatly improve the chances of survival for
older adults in the event of a fire, the National Fire Protection Association,
with the support of the American Health Care Association, the fire safety
community, and the nursing facility profession, recently adopted requirements
for automatic sprinklers in all existing nursing facilities.
(b)It is the sense of Congress that—
(1)within five years,
every nursing facility in America should be equipped with automatic fire
sprinklers in order to ensure patient, resident, and staff safety; and
(2)the Secretary of
Health and Human Services (in this Act referred to as the
Secretary
), acting through the Administrator of the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services should—
(A)adopt a
requirement that all nursing facilities be fully sprinklered with the support
of the nursing facility industry; and
(B)ensure that skilled nursing facilities
participating in the Medicare program comply with fire safety standards, such
as those developed by the National Fire Protection Association in the 2006 Life
Safety Code.
3.Direct loans for
fire sprinklers retrofits
(a)Not later than 120 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall
establish a program of direct loans to existing nursing facilities to finance
the retrofit of the facilities with an automatic fire sprinkler system. Such
loans shall be made under terms and conditions specified by the
Secretary.
(b)Authorization of
appropriationsThere is authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section $200,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, $100,000,000 for fiscal
year 2011, $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2012, $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2013,
and $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2014.
4.Sprinkler
retrofit assistance grants
(a)Not later than 120 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall
establish a program to award grants to nursing facilities for the purposes of
retrofitting them with an automatic fire sprinkler system. Such grants shall be
awarded under terms and conditions specified by the Secretary.
(b)In
awarding grants under this section, the Secretary shall give a priority to
applications that demonstrate a need or hardship. In determining hardship, the
Secretary may take into account factors such as the number of Medicare and
Medicaid patients, the age and condition of the facility, and the need for
nursing facility beds in the community involved.
(c)Authorization of
appropriationsThere is authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section $20,000,000 for each fiscal years 2010 through 2014.
5.Consultation and
evaluation of alternatives
(a)The
Secretary of Health and Human Services shall consult with the Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development to determine if there are loan programs or other
funds available for retrofitting nursing facilities with an automatic fire
sprinkler system in addition to the loans and grants authorized in this
Act.
(b)Evaluation of
alternative remedial actionsThe Secretary may evaluate, in
unique circumstances, where a nursing facility may not have an adequate
structure to retrofit the entire facility with an automatic fire sprinkler
system within a reasonable timeframe. In such an instance, the Secretary shall
work with representatives of the facility to identify other remedial actions
that may include retrofitting a majority of the facility with such a system,
construction timeframes for a new or remodeled facility, or other
actions.