Month: March 2021

Oklahoma has new guidelines about nursing home visitation! Thankfully, these rules are a big step in the right direction. Read the guidelines here. We would like to thank Representative Marilyn Stark, who has been working tirelessly to make sure that families can visit with their loved ones in nursing homes.

Representative Stark authored HB 1677 which allows families to appoint a compassionate caregiver to oversee the care of loved ones in a long-term care facility. Her bill would allow compassionate caregivers to visit with their loved ones with reasonable precautions, even in a time of emergency. This bill has already passed the House floor and is assigned to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Senator Weaver is the Senate author.

Health encompasses so many factors, including mental, emotional, and spiritual factors. We have seen the destruction of isolation as a side-effect of the pandemic and okhpr.com is pleased to support legislation and advocacy on behalf of our elderly population living in assisted living and nursing homes.

If your family member is bedfast and the facility is not allowing you in to see your loved one you can report the facility by emailing or calling ltc@health.ok.gov or by calling 405-426-82000

Huge wins this week!

The bills above have passed the chamber of origin and are now moving to the opposite chamber to be heard in committee. This marks about the halfway point for these bills! We are so excited to watch these bills move on to the next step in the legislative process. If your Senator or Representative voted in favor of these three measures, please send them an email to say thank you!

As a reminder, the legislative process is lengthy. A bill must go through many different votes before it can become a law. It is difficult to make a law, which is actually a good thing. We don’t want thousands of laws that regulate how we live our daily lives. Here is all of the steps that a bill must go through to become a law.

Check out what bills are left to support on OKHPR’s full legislative agenda!

We send out action alerts on these bills in our weekly emails on Friday mornings. These emails are only sent to our official OKHPR members. Click the button below to become an official member and receive weekly email updates!