Nursing homes and assisted living facilities financed with loans insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 232 program could see a bit less regulation as a result of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee for Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill.
According to a report submitted by Tom Latham (R-Iowa), Subcommittee Chairman, loans insured by HUD’s 232 program are being forced to comply with unnecessary regulation.
The report states that inspections by the Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) for facilities insured under the program can be duplicative with state and local health and safety codes, even contradictory at times. While the inspections are required for the 232 program, HUD’s program that insures hospitals are not subject to REAC inspections.
Instead, the agency is given access to facility inspection reports by state and local authors.
“The committee therefore directs the Department to issue regulations limiting REAC inspections for facilities insured under Section 232 of the National Housing Act to only those facilities for which the state or local government does not inspect or provide for sufficient inspections in accordance with the guidance of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or applicable state or local law,” said the report.
The Committee also directs the Federal Housing Administration to provide a status report on implementation by December 31, 2011, and quarterly thereafter.
Whether or not the language survives in the end isn’t clear, but should all Congress do is pass a year-long omnibus continuing resolution bill for fiscal year 2012, it has a chance, said Chris Boesen of Tiber Creek Associates of Capital Hill, a lobbying firm based in Washington, DC.
“What really matters, though, is that HUD gets the message that this is something Congress would like addressed,” he wrote in an email to SHN. “HUD staff are actually receptive to this change; it makes sense. These facilities are already inspected and regulated far more than the multifamily rental properties REAC was designed for.”
Written by John Yedinak