PCA Bill Passes Legislature
SF2933, a bill that includes changes to the PCA training requirements has been passed by both the House and Senate and is now headed to the Governor’s desk for his signature. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously, and the House with only 5 votes against.
Highlights of the bill include:
1. Provisions that increase the notice requirements and protections if a provider of home care services will be terminating services due to provider sanctions imposed by the Department of Human Services (Article 1, Section 8, line 7.11).
2. Allows for a PCA, under certain circumstances, to enroll with a different PCA agency upon the initiation of the new background study. The circumstances are related to situations where the previous PCA agency is shutting down. This offers an opportunity for the new PCA agency to provide the services without worrying about getting reimbursed during the period that the PCA is getting the new background study. This provision is retroactive to July 1, 2009 (Article 1, Section 11 & 12, beginning at line 9.25)
3. Home Health Aide visits now include “including ensuring that the person gets to medical appointments if identified in the written plan of care” (Article 2, Section 1, line 27.6).
4. Definition of “Wages and Benefits.” This definition was included to address what counts as Wages and Benefits for the purposes of the certification that a PCA Agency must provide that 72.5% of the Medical Assistance rate paid for PCA services goes to Wages and Benefits (Article 2, Section 2, at line 29.10).
5. The number of hours per day that a PCA works shall not be disallowed by DHS unless it is a violation of law (Article 2, Section 5, at line 33.8).
6. Qualified Professional Training: must be provided on-line. Medicare Certified Agencies are exempt from the QP training requirement (Article 2, Section 6, line 34.5).
7. Qualified Professional Duties: clarifies the requirements regarding supervisory visits and allows for some “phone” or “remote” visits (Article 2, Section 7, beginning at 34.21).
8. PCA Choice. It makes clear that the hiring and firing of a PCA is subject to the agreement between the Agency and the recipient (Article 2, Section 9, line 36.30).
9. Non-Compete restriction. The bill requires that a PCA agency provide “documentation that the agency does not burden recipients’ free exercise of their right to choose service providers by requiring personal care assistants to sign an agreement not to work with any particular personal care assistance recipient or for another personal care assistance provider agency after leaving the agency and that the agency is not taking action on any such agreements or requirements regardless of the date signed” (Article 2, Section 11, at line 40.26).
10. PCA Management Training (Article 2, Section 11, beginning at line 41.1).
Changes who needs to be trained—“all employees in management and supervisory positions and owners of the agency who are active in the day to day management and operations of the agency.” This removes QPs, other owners and members of the Board of Directors from the training requirement (at line 41.7).
Requires that training be available online or by remote connection and provide for competency testing (at line 41.13).
Exempts Medicare Certified Agencies from these management training requirements (at line 41.20).
11. Expands the ability of an agency to market by removing the limitation of only being allowed to “market agency services only through printed information in brochures and on Websites” (Article 2, Section 12, line 42.1).
12. Adds language regarding the duties that a PCA providing services to a ventilator-dependent recipient can perform (Article 2, Section 13, line 42.19).
Here is a link to the conference committee report as it passed the Senate and the House:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=ccrsf2933.html&session=ls86
