F567 Protection of Resident Funds

Continuing in the residents’ right section of Appendix PP includes F567 which tells nursing home providers that residents have the right to manage their own financial affairs. This includes what charges the nursing home may impose against their personal funds (such as transportation services). You cannot require that residents deposit any personal funds into an account with the nursing home (such as if you feel like this would be the safer option). If they choose to deposit funds within your trust account, they must agree to this in writing, and the nursing home is expected to hold, safeguard, and manage for those funds including providing an accounting of fund usage and availability. These funds must be separated from business accounts.

The resident must have access to their funds in a timely manner. While a timely manner is not immediately, it is expected that the resident can access their funds whenever they desire to do so, including evenings, weekends, and holidays. The interpretative guidance indicates that residents must be able to access requested funds of less than $100 (or $50 for Medicaid residents) the same day of the request and three banking days for amounts of $100 (or $50 for Medicaid residents) or more.

If the resident’s money is in excess of $100 (or $50 for Medicaid residents), the nursing home must place this in an interest-bearing account and provide separate accounting of these funds. The interest must be appropriately divided among the accounts and provided at least a quarterly statement. If the money is in a pooled account (such as all resident’s funds are deposited into one account), there must be a system for providing individual accounting records.

If the bank charges a fee for handling funds, the nursing home may pass this fee along to the resident(s). However, the nursing home cannot charge a fee to handle the resident’s money.

This regulation is not frequently cited, but when it is, the noncompliance generally relates to the resident not having access to their funds as outlined and/or the nursing home not providing statements for the resident’s account including what transactions occurred and if interest is added to the account, the amount of interest accrued. While the regulation requires that this is completed on a quarterly basis, you may provide a statement of accounting more frequently if desired.