42 U.S.C. § 1396g — State programs for licensing of administrators of nursing homes

(a) Nature of State program. For purposes of section 1396a(a)(29) of this title, a “State program for the licensing of administrators of nursing homes” is a program under which no nursing home in the State may operate unless a licensed administrator supervises it. This section does not otherwise define “State program.” (b) Licensing by State agency or board representing the relevant professions and institutions. The State agency responsible for licensing under the State’s healing-arts licensing law must license nursing home administrators. If the State has no such law or agency, a board representing the professions and institutions involved in caring for chronically ill and infirm older patients must do so. The board must be established to carry out this section. (c) Agency or board functions and duties. The agency or board must: (1) develop, impose, and enforce standards that a person must meet to receive a nursing-home-administrator license. The standards must be designed to ensure that administrators have good character, are otherwise suitable, and are qualified through training or experience in institutional administration; (2) develop and use suitable methods, including examinations and investigations, to decide whether a person meets those standards; (3) issue licenses to people who meet the standards after those methods are applied, and revoke or suspend a license if its holder is found to have substantially failed to meet the standards; (4) establish and carry out procedures designed to ensure that licensed administrators comply with the standards while serving as administrators; (5) receive and investigate charges or complaints claiming that a licensed administrator has failed to meet the standards, and take appropriate action on them; and (6) continually study and investigate nursing homes and their administrators in the State, with the goal of improving the licensing standards and the procedures and methods for enforcing them against licensed administrators. (d) Waiver of standards other than good-character or suitability standards. A State is not treated as failing to comply with section 1396a(a)(29) merely because its agency or board grants a waiver of any standard it developed, imposed, and enforced under subsection (c) to a person who served as a nursing home administrator during all three calendar years immediately before the calendar year in which the State first meets the requirements of section 1396a(a)(29). The waiver may not be of the good-character or suitability standards. (e) Definitions. (1) “Nursing home” means an institution or facility that State law defines as a nursing home for licensing purposes. If State law does not use the term “nursing home,” the term or terms that the Secretary determines are equivalent apply. The term does not include a religious nonmedical health care institution, as defined in section 1395x(ss)(1) of this title. (2) “Nursing home administrator” means a person responsible for the general administration of a nursing home, whether or not the person owns an interest in the home and whether or not the person shares the functions and duties with one or more other people.