Membership in the Empire State Association of Assisted Living is open to operators of licensed Adult Homes, Enriched Housing Programs and Assisted Living Residences in New York State, and to any individual, company or corporation that has an interest or is involved in assisted living in New York State.

The Association offers a Provider membership for existing or prospective adult home, enriched living and assisted living providers. An Industry Partner membership is available for vendors and other assisted living stakeholders. All applicants are reviewed and considered by the Association's Board of Directors.

For more information regarding membership, or any of the benefits and services outlined below, please contact Carla Erhartic, Membership Services and Development, at (518) 371-2573 or via email at Cerhartic@esaal.org.

To review ESAAL's membership benefits and services, click any of the categories below.

The Association’s widely respected lobbying team, Hinman Straub PC, represents the interests of ESAAL member providers before the New York State Legislature and Executive Branch by advocating for laws and regulations that support the Adult Care/Assisted Living Provider Network.

Hinman Straub attorneys have decades of experience in providing legislative and state agency representation to a wide variety of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, trade associations and local governments. On behalf of ESAAL and its members, Hinman Straub was instrumental in effecting passage of New York State’s Assisted Living Law and the first state increase of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for adult home and enriched housing residents in 17 years.

ESAAL offers a member group-purchasing program through a partnership with Seagate Alliance GPO to help members dramatically reduce costs on several hundred commodities and equipment items, including food. For more information, please contact Linda Yakatan, at (518) 371-2573, or at lyakatan@esaal.org.

ESAAL offers group insurance programs to help individual providers with their insurance needs and to pay reduced premiums by promoting effective risk management practices in member Assisted Living Residences. For more information, please contact Maria DeLorenzo at 518-783-2665 or via email at mtdelorenzo@coolins.com.

Association staff and legal counsel provide ESAAL members information to achieve and maintain regulatory compliance with the New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) survey process. ESAAL also assists members in responding to DOH survey reports. ESAAL members have the advantage of tapping into the experience of other providers who face similar regulatory challenges. We share this base of knowledge with our members in a variety of ways, including our monthly newsletter, fax "blasts" and our regional membership meetings.

ESAAL offers free or low-cost educational opportunities at our annual conference and trade show, annual regional membership meetings and special seminars that address important industry topics such as quality improvement programs, case management and medication management. For educational programming information, please contact Linda Yakatan, at (518) 371-2573, or at lyakatan@esaal.org.

ESAAL is the first stop for members seeking access to a range of important industry information, including copies of regulations and regulatory interpretations, reports on industry trends and “best practices” in assisted living operations, and research data that members can use for benchmarking purposes. For more information, please contact Lisa Newcomb, Executive Director, at (518) 371-2573, or at lnewcomb@esaal.org.

ESAAL’s bi-monthly newsletter, The Vision, keeps members up-to-date on regulatory and lobbying issues, as well as state and national trends in Adult Care/Assisted Living. View a sample.

ESAAL’s public relations and marketing professionals at Albany-based Corning Place Communications (CPC) assist Association members in a variety of ways. Whether creating media opportunities or responding to media inquiries, CPC helps to raise positive public awareness about ESAAL and the Assisted Living industry. CPC's comprehensive public and media relations program promotes ESAAL's agenda to political decision makers and the public at large through:

- Targeted outreach to key media;
- Development of background materials;
- Coordination of press conferences; and
- Formulation of op-eds and letters to the editor.

When necessary, CPC offers ESAAL members advice on responding to media inquiries, developing key messages and talking points, and preparing for media interviews. CPC works closely with ESAAL's members to ensure that strong, positive and consistent messages are communicated to the media, elected officials and the public.

ESAAL’s adult home and enriched housing program manuals are specifically tailored to helping providers comply with New York State Department of Health laws and regulations, as well as to implement good practices to enhance resident quality of care and quality of life, and staff competency and satisfaction. In these manuals, ESAAL brings to providers 32 years of experience in the operation of an Adult Care Facility. Each adult home or enriched housing program regulation is included, along with notes about how the regulation has been interpreted and enforced over the years, challenges that the regulation has presented, and good practices to assist providers to address those challenges and to comply with NYS Department of Health requirements. Supporting documentation provided over the years by the Department of Health and the former NYS Department of Social Services is provided. Also, the manuals include a Disc of sample forms in Microsoft Word® format so that they can be tailored to the individual provider’s operation.

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