RCF Regulations

/Home/g. Assisted Living and the Law in Ohio/Rights of Seniors

In Ohio, assisted living communities housing seventeen or more individuals are licensed as residential care facilities (RCFs). The Ohio Department of Health issues this license. Smaller assisted living communities that want to provide one or more skilled nursing care services must also be licensed as residential care facilities. Interested persons can find the licensing standards for RCFs in rules 3701-17-50 to 3701-17-68 of the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC). These rules are available on ODH’s website at http://www.odh.ohio.gov and can be accessed by clicking the “Rules” button and then “Final Rules”. Several other rules also apply to RCFs, such as the rules that set forth a resident’s rights (Chapter 3701-61 of the OAC), and the criminal records check requirements for persons providing direct care to residents (Chapter 3701-13 of the OAC). These rules may be accessed through links to the Ohio Revised Code (law) and the Ohio Administrative Code (rules) from the ODH Rules page. Additionally, rules 4723-27-01 through 4723-27-14 cover the Certified Medication Aide Program and rules 173-39-01 through 173-39-08 and 5101-3-1-06.5, 5101-3-33-02 through 5101-3-33-07 cover the Assisted Living Medicaid Waiver. Interested parties can purchase hard copies of the rules by calling 614-481-1950, or e-mailing us at: oala@ohioassistedliving.org

Smaller communities, providing assisted living services and no skilled nursing care that house less than seventeen residents are licensed by ODH as adult group homes (5-16) or adult family homes (3-5). Interested persons can find the rules that set forth the licensing standards for these categories in rules 3701-20-01 to 3701-20-27 of the OAC. These rules are also available on the ODH website, or online at: http://onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com/oac.

Besides complying with the above referenced rules, assisted living facilities classified as RCFs or “homes” have to meet all applicable state requirements. For example, the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) contains several statutes that apply to assisted living facilities, including the Ohio Building Code (Chapter 3781 and Chapter 3791 of the ORC), the State Fire Code (Chapter 3737 of the ORC), and the statute that grants residents’ rights (Section 3721.13 of the ORC). Interested parties can find the rules that carry the building code in Chapter 4010:2 of the OAC and that carry out the fire code in Chapter 1301:7-1 of the OAC. The statutes referenced above are available on the Internet at: http://onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com/revisedcode and the rules available at: http://onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com/oac/