NRS449.065. Surety bond for initial license and renewal of license to operate facility for intermediate care, facility for skilled nursing, residential facility for groups, home for individual residential care, agency to provide personal care services in home and agency to provide nursing in home; exemption; exception.

      1.  Except as otherwise provided in subsections 6 and 7 and NRS 449.067, each facility for intermediate care, facility for skilled nursing, residential facility for groups, home for individual residential care, agency to provide personal care services in the home and agency to provide nursing in the home shall, when applying for a license or renewing a license, file with the Administrator of the Division of Public and Behavioral Health a surety bond:

      (a) If the facility, agency or home employs less than 7 employees, in the amount of $5,000;

      (b) If the facility, agency or home employs at least 7 but not more than 25 employees, in the amount of $25,000; or

      (c) If the facility, agency or home employs more than 25 employees, in the amount of $50,000.

      2.  A bond filed pursuant to this section must be executed by the facility, agency or home as principal and by a surety company as surety. The bond must be payable to the Aging and Disability Services Division of the Department of Health and Human Services and must be conditioned to provide indemnification to an older patient who the Specialist for the Rights of Elderly Persons determines has suffered property damage as a result of any act or failure to act by the facility, agency or home to protect the property of the older patient.

      3.  Except when a surety is released, the surety bond must cover the period of the initial license to operate or the period of the renewal, as appropriate.

      4.  A surety on any bond filed pursuant to this section may be released after the surety gives 30 days’ written notice to the Administrator of the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, but the release does not discharge or otherwise affect any claim filed by an older patient for property damaged as a result of any act or failure to act by the facility, agency or home to protect the property of the older patient alleged to have occurred while the bond was in effect.

      5.  A license is suspended by operation of law when the facility, agency or home is no longer covered by a surety bond as required by this section or by a substitute for the surety bond pursuant to NRS 449.067. The Administrator of the Division of Public and Behavioral Health shall give the facility, agency or home at least 20 days’ written notice before the release of the surety or the substitute for the surety, to the effect that the license will be suspended by operation of law until another surety bond or substitute for the surety bond is filed in the same manner and amount as the bond or substitute being terminated.

      6.  The Administrator of the Division of Public and Behavioral Health may exempt a residential facility for groups or a home for individual residential care from the requirement of filing a surety bond pursuant to this section if the Administrator determines that the requirement would result in undue hardship to the residential facility for groups or home for individual residential care.

      7.  The requirement of filing a surety bond set forth in this section does not apply to a facility for intermediate care, facility for skilled nursing, residential facility for groups, home for individual residential care, agency to provide personal care services in the home or agency to provide nursing in the home that is operated and maintained by the State of Nevada or an agency thereof.

      8.  As used in this section, “older patient” means a patient who is 60 years of age or older.

      (Added to NRS by 1997, 1482; A 2003, 524; 2005, 2168; 2009, 502; 2013, 3057)