2005 Missouri Revised Statutes - § 198.090. — Personal possessions may be held in trust, requirements, disposal of --written statements required when, penalty--prohibitions, penalties --misappropriation, report, investigation--employee disqualification list.

198.090. 1. An operator may make available to any resident the service of holding in trust personal possessions and funds of the resident and shall, as authorized by the resident, expend the funds to meet the resident's personal needs. In providing this service the operator shall:

(1) At the time of admission, provide each resident or his next of kin or legal guardian with a written statement explaining the resident's rights regarding personal funds;

(2) Accept funds and personal possessions from or for a resident for safekeeping and management, only upon written authorization by the resident or by his designee, or guardian in the case of an adjudged incompetent;

(3) Deposit any personal funds received from or on behalf of a resident in an account separate from the facility's funds, except that an amount to be established by rule of the division of aging may be kept in a petty cash fund for the resident's personal needs;

(4) Keep a written account, available to a resident and his designee or guardian, maintained on a current basis for each resident, with written receipts, for all personal possessions and funds received by or deposited with the facility and for all disbursements made to or on behalf of the resident;

(5) Provide each resident or his designee or guardian with a quarterly accounting of all financial transactions made on behalf of the resident;

(6) Within five days of the discharge of a resident, provide the resident, or his designee or guardian, with an up-to-date accounting of the resident's personal funds and return to the resident the balance of his funds and all his personal possessions;

(7) Upon the death of a resident who has been a recipient of aid, assistance, care, services, or who has had moneys expended on his behalf by the department of social services, provide the department a complete account of all the resident's personal funds within sixty days from the date of death. The total amount paid to the decedent or expended upon his behalf by the department shall be a debt due the state and recovered from the available funds upon the department's claim on such funds. The department shall make a claim on the funds within sixty days from the date of the accounting of the funds by the facility. The nursing facility shall pay the claim made by the department of social services from the resident's personal funds within sixty days. Where the name and address are reasonably ascertainable, the department of social services shall give notice of the debt due the state to the person whom the recipient had designated to receive the quarterly accounting of all financial transactions made under this section, or the resident's guardian or conservator or the person or persons listed in nursing home records as a responsible party or the fiduciary of the resident's estate. If any funds are available after the department's claim, the remaining provisions of this section shall apply to the balance, unless the funds belonged to a person other than the resident, in which case the funds shall be paid to that person;

(8) Upon the death of a resident who has not been a recipient of aid, assistance, care, services, or who has not had moneys expended on his behalf by the department of social services or the department has not made a claim on the funds, provide the fiduciary of resident's estate, at the fiduciary's request, a complete account of all the resident's personal funds and possessions and deliver to the fiduciary all possessions of the resident and the balance of the resident's funds. If, after one year from the date of death, no fiduciary makes claim upon such funds or possessions, the operator shall notify the department that the funds remain unclaimed. Such unclaimed funds or possessions shall be disposed of as follows:

(a) If the unclaimed funds or possessions have a value totaling one hundred and fifty dollars or less, the funds or the proceeds of the sale of the possessions may be deposited in a fund to be used for the benefit of all residents of the facility by providing the residents social or educational activities. The facility shall keep an accounting of the acquisitions and expenditure of these funds; or

(b) If the unclaimed funds or possessions have a value greater than one hundred and fifty dollars, the funds or possessions shall be immediately presumed to be abandoned property under sections 447.500 to 447.585, RSMo, and the procedures provided for in those sections shall apply notwithstanding any other provisions of those sections which require a period greater than two years for a presumption of abandonment;

(9) Upon ceasing to be the operator of a facility, all funds and property held in trust pursuant to this section shall be transferred to the new operator in accordance with sound accounting principles, and a closeout report signed by both the outgoing operator and the successor operator shall be prepared. The closeout report shall include a list of current balances of all funds held for residents respectively and an inventory of all property held for residents respectively. If the outgoing operator refuses to sign the closeout report, he shall state in writing the specific reasons for his failure to so sign, and the successor operator shall complete the report and attach an affidavit stating that the information contained therein is true to the best of his knowledge and belief. Such report shall be retained with all other records and accounts required to be maintained under this section;

(10) Not be required to invest any funds received from or on behalf of a resident, nor to increase the principal of any such funds.

2. Any owner, operator, manager, employee, or affiliate of an owner or operator who receives any personal property or anything else of value from a resident, shall, if the thing received has a value of ten dollars or more, make a written statement giving the date it was received, from whom it was received, and its estimated value. Statements required to be made pursuant to this subsection shall be retained by the operator and shall be made available for inspection by the department, or by the department of mental health when the resident has been placed by that department, and by the resident, and his designee or legal guardian. Any person who fails to make a statement required by this subsection is guilty of a class C misdemeanor.

3. No owner, operator, manager, employee, or affiliate of an owner or operator shall in one calendar year receive any personal property or anything else of value from the residents of any facility which have a total estimated value in excess of one hundred dollars.

4. Subsections 2 and 3 of this section shall not apply if the property or other thing of value is held in trust in accordance with subsection 1 of this section, is received in payment for services rendered or pursuant to the terms of a lawful contract, or is received from a resident who is related to the recipient within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity.

5. Any operator who fails to maintain records or who fails to maintain any resident's personal funds in an account separate from the facility's funds as required by this section shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor.

6. Any operator, or any affiliate or employee of an operator, who puts to his own use or the use of the facility or otherwise diverts from the resident's use any personal funds of the resident shall be guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

7. Any person having reasonable cause to believe that a misappropriation of a resident's funds or property has occurred may report such information to the department.

8. For each report the division shall attempt to obtain the name and address of the facility, the name of the facility employee, the name of the resident, information regarding the nature of the misappropriation, the name of the complainant, and any other information which might be helpful in an investigation.

9. Upon receipt of a report, the department shall initiate an investigation.

10. If the investigation indicates probable misappropriation of property or funds of a resident, the investigator shall refer the complaint together with his report to the department director or his designee for appropriate action.

11. Reports shall be confidential, as provided under section 660.320, RSMo.

12. Anyone, except any person participating in or benefiting from the misappropriation of funds, who makes a report pursuant to this section or who testifies in any administrative or judicial proceeding arising from the report shall be immune from any civil or criminal liability for making such a report or for testifying except for liability for perjury, unless such person acted negligently, recklessly, in bad faith, or with malicious purpose.

13. Within five working days after a report required to be made under this section is received, the person making the report shall be notified in writing of its receipt and of the initiation of the investigation.

14. No person who directs or exercises any authority in a facility shall evict, harass, dismiss or retaliate against a resident or employee because he or any member of his family has made a report of any violation or suspected violation of laws, ordinances or regulations applying to the facility which he has reasonable cause to believe has been committed or has occurred.

15. The department shall maintain the employee disqualification list and place on the employee disqualification list the names of any persons who have been finally determined by the department, pursuant to section 660.315, RSMo, to have misappropriated any property or funds of a resident while employed in any facility.

(L. 1979 S.B. 328, et al. § 30, A.L. 1982 H.B. 1086, A.L. 1989 S.B. 203 & 270, A.L. 1992 S.B. 573 & 634, A.L. 1993 H.B. 564)

(2003) Violation of written report provision of subsection 2 of section does not automatically constitute misappropriation of resident's funds under subsection 15 of section. Wells v. Dunn, 104 S.W.3d 792 (Mo.App. W.D.).