Separate sprinkler bill still ‘very much alive’
From staff, AP reports
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A House committee on Monday removed from a mental-health bill a proposed requirement that group homes install sprinklers, but Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, said Tuesday that his bill requiring sprinklers for group homes, assisted-living homes and long-term care homes is still “very much alive.”
The sprinkler requirement in the two separate pieces of legislation was in response to a Nov. 27 fire that destroyed the Anderson Guest House in Anderson, a home for the mentally impaired, and killed 11 people.
Gov. Matt Blunt called for all the state’s long-term-care homes to install sprinklers, following the recommendation of a review he ordered after the Anderson fire.
Investigators believe the fire smoldered in the home’s attic before bursting through the ceiling. The owners of the home had been cited for previous fire-safety violations at several Southwest Missouri homes they operated.
Sprinklers currently are required for all homes opened after October 2000, and even earlier for some buildings, depending on the type of construction and the number of stories.
The Department of Health and Senior Services has said about 59 percent of all residential-care centers in the state have full sprinkler systems. Fewer than half of group homes — such as the one in Anderson — have the sprinkler systems.
Wilson said Senate Bill 3, a mental-health bill, initially included the sprinkler requirement, but it was taken out of that bill.
The Senate legislation has other changes aimed at group homes, including requiring that the final reports be made public in cases in which abuse and neglect have been documented. Individual identifying information would be removed, and if an investigation finds that the claims are false, only the family would receive a copy.
The measure also increases the penalties for those who abuse or neglect patients. Abusing a “vulnerable person” could be a Class A felony, with a sentence of 10 years to life in prison. Providers who do not correct problems identified by Department of Mental Health inspections could be fined up to $10,000 per day. The current fine for not correcting those problems is $100 per day.
Wilson said his proposal, which earlier this spring passed the House 152-6, is moving independently and is on the Senate calendar.
“The plan is to get that bill out of the Senate and back over to me,” Wilson said. At that point, he will review it and either accept the changes as written in the Senate or go to a conference panel to resolve differences.
“I’ll have to wait and see how it goes over there,” he said.
The legislative session concludes Friday.
“I think they should be (required),” Amanda Taff said Tuesday of sprinklers. She was working at the Anderson Guest House when the fire broke out. Her husband, Glenn Taff, who also was working there, was killed. Amanda Taff suffered burns over 40 percent of her body.
“This should have been done years ago,” said her uncle, James Mathews, of Anderson.
Wilson said his bill sets up a revolving loan fund for the owners of the group homes, with interest rates of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent and terms of up to 10 years, to put in sprinklers. It also gives the owners of such homes eight years to put in the sprinkler systems.
“We’re bending over backward to try and make sure they don’t go out of business,” Wilson said of the business owners.
Area opponent
Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, was one of the six members of the Missouri House who voted against the bill introduced by Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, requiring sprinklers in group homes.
The additional costs of installing sprinklers would be passed on to patients or force homes to limit the number of people they can accept, Emery said in April.
Although supporters of the bill are well-meaning, Emery said, the legislation eventually could deny some people access to care in the homes.
“I just didn’t feel like this, in the long run, would accomplish its intention,” he said at the time.
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