State lawmakers seek stronger nursing home oversight, more ombudsmen

CT Examiner – Tuesday, January 27, 2026
By Robert Storace

HARTFORD — State lawmakers to oversee elder care policy are preparing a push this session to strengthen oversight in nursing homes and expand virtual connections for residents, building on recent health care legislation aimed at improving outcomes for older adults.

Aging Committee co-Chair State Rep. Jane Garibay, D-Windsor, said the group’s priorities for the 2026 legislative session — which starts Feb. 4 — include adding more state ombudsmen to visit nursing homes.

There are currently nine ombudsmen and there were 195 nursing homes in the state at the beginning of 2025.

“I’d like to see at least two more [ombudsmen] to bring the total to 11,” she said. “They are advocates for the elderly. The ombudsmen are absolutely crucial. … For example, I’m in a nursing home where I have been mistreated or I didn’t get my food [until hours later], they can call the ombudsmen. It’s posted in every nursing home and every home care [facility].”

The ombudsmen, Garibay said, would go to the site, interview the resident, “and try to work to take care of the problem” as they collaborate with entities like the Department of Public Health and the state Department of Aging and Disability Services. “An ombudsman can be their lifeline,” she said.

Garibay, former executive director of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce, said helping the state’s approximate 700,000 seniors 65 years and older — many of whom live in elder care facilities — with virtual contact with family and friends who might be out of state is also critical.

The lawmaker said she plans to introduce legislation this session to strengthen the technology for virtual visitations.

“Just having the technology and the people [staff] to help the residents with the technology, whether FaceTime or Zoom or Teams, or whatever,” she said. “These things don’t automatically happen without legislation. I would put in some parameters. It would create a process that would require elder care facilities to make it [technology] available. Family members can visit with their loved ones.”

Garibay, co-chair of the 14-member committee since 2021, said the group worked closely with entities like the American Cancer Society and the Alzheimer’s Association Connecticut Chapter in getting the biomarker legislation approved last year.

“I heard from a lot of people how important it [biomarker testing] was to them; it tends to be a little bit expensive,” she said Wednesday. “Without insurance it could cost $1,500 to $3,000 for the test.”

The bill requires group health insurance policies to cover biomarker testing to diagnose, treat, manage and monitor diseases like certain cancers and Alzheimer’s. The testing is the analysis of a patient’s tissue, blood or other biospecimen for a biomarker. The test does not include an analysis of how a patient physically functions or feels.

Garibay said Medicaid covers the test, but that many insurance companies had not covered it.

“It’s important, especially as a woman, if you have a history of breast or uterine cancer in your family to test for that gene because there’s a lot of things you can do to prevent it,” she said.

State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, R-Newtown, an Aging Committee member, said last week that the group works in a bipartisan fashion.

“We are very good at taking bills that have issues that have been unaddressed and working them out very pragmatically. We developed a little bit of a reputation for being able to take things like the biomarker and move them into legislation,” he said.

Bolinsky said Garibay, his Democratic counterpart, “brings an incredible heart and a lot of passion to the table. … She covers a lot of ground and she has ideas. We talk about those ideas and we brainstorm [ideas] into legislation.”

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