The proposed new regulation 22VAC40-73-1010 (Applicability) removes the exception in 22VAC40-72-990 for facilities licensed for 10 or fewer and with no more than three residents with serious cognitive impairment. Thus, increasing the number of staff requirement  on duty. 

The removal of this exception is again eliminating small businesses/facilities by causing undue hardship and making it very difficult for them to be competitive with other bigger facilities.

Recognising that not all families likes the bigger facilities; some ALF's mission/vison is to provide care in a home environment, thereby having reduced number of residents in ech facility.

For example:  ALF  Y is licensed for maximum capacity of 4 or 5 residents of which one to two have serious cognitvie impairment as stated in Article 2. According to the propsed regulation, "there shall be at least two direct care staff members awake and on duty at all times in each building when residents are present". Having 2 staff at all times in a facility with 4 or 5 residents is not cost effective and posses undue hardship on the facility considering the fact that some of these resident will be AG residents. Even if these residents do qualify for some type of Waiver, monthly salary of one direct care staff with minimum wage of $7.5/hr alone is $1200.00. Based on the new proposed regulation, a total of 6 staff will be needed monthly (based on 8hrs shift), averaging about $7200.00 monthly on salaries alone (minus overtime).

I am hereby requesting that Part X , Article 2 be reconsidered and the Exception Clause be reinstated  back into the proposed regulation based on the type of licenses currently approved by VDSS for ALfs.