"AN ACT CONCERNING REGULATIONS RELATING TO HOSPICE CARE. "

After the last section, add the following and renumber sections and internal references accordingly:

"Sec. 501. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) Each hospital, as defined in section 19a-490 of the general statutes, and long-term care facility, as defined in section 17b-400 of the general statutes, that intends to discharge a patient to a hospice facility or hospice residence shall provide the patient or a member of the patient's family, as the hospital or long-term care facility deems appropriate, with a list of hospice facilities and hospice residences located in the geographic area where the patient resides or in another geographic area requested by the patient that provide hospice services and accept patients receiving Medicare benefits. A hospital or long-term care facility shall not limit the patient's ability to choose from among hospice facilities and hospice residences that accept patients receiving Medicare benefits within the preferred geographic area and shall inform the patient or the patient's family member, as appropriate, that the patient is free to choose among the hospice facilities and hospice residences on the list. The hospital or long-term care facility shall document in the patient's medical record that the patient or the patient's family member has been provided a copy of such list.

(b) The Commissioner of Public Health shall include in any regulations adopted by the department for a hospice facility or hospice residence requirements that such facility or residence: (1) Maintain a staffing ratio of not less than one registered nurse to six patients and not less than one nurse, as defined in section 19a-490l of the general statutes, to three patients; (2) provide pharmaceutical services at the location where the hospice facility or residence is located that shall be under the direction of a licensed pharmacist who is employed by the hospice facility or residence; (3) conduct a medical evaluation of each patient admitted to the facility or residence not more than four hours after the patient's admission; and (4) operate a program to provide hospice home health care services. "