5204067 Health Care Finance, Department of - Notice of Emergency and Proposed Rulemaking - Governing Medicaid Reimbursement for Personal Care Aide Services

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CARE FINANCE

 

NOTICE OF EMERGENCY AND PROPOSED RULEMAKING

 

The Director of the Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF), pursuant to the authority set forth in An Act to enable the District of Columbia to receive federal financial assistance under Title XIX of the Social Security Act for a medical assistance program, and for other purposes, approved December 27, 1967 (81 Stat. 774; D.C. Official Code § 1-307.02 (2012 Repl. & 2014 Supp.)) and Section 6(6) of the Department of Health Care Finance Establishment Act of 2007, effective February 27, 2008 (D.C. Law 17-109; D.C. Official Code § 7-771.05(6) (2012 Repl.)), hereby gives notice of the adoption, on an emergency basis, of an amendment to Section 5015 of Chapter 50 (Medicaid Reimbursements for Personal Care Aide Services) of Title 29 (Public Welfare) of the District of Columbia Municipal Register (DCMR). 

 

These emergency and proposed rules amend the previously published final rules governing reimbursement of providers of personal care services under the District of Columbia State Plan for Medical Assistance by increasing the rates by one dollar and twenty cents ($1.20) per hour, or thirty (30) cents per fifteen (15) minute increment for services rendered by a personal care aide. This adjustment was made after DHCF analyzed the home health care agency cost reports.

 

Emergency action is necessary for the immediate preservation of the health, safety, and welfare of beneficiaries who are in need of personal care aide services.  A rate increase is necessary at this time to ensure that there is an adequate provider supply and to maintain continuity of care for beneficiaries who are receiving personal care aide services. To preserve beneficiaries’ health, safety, and welfare, and to avoid any lapse in access to personal care aide services, it is necessary that these rules be published on an emergency basis.   

 

The emergency rulemaking was adopted on October 10, 2014 and shall become effective for services rendered on or after November 1, 2014.  The emergency rules shall remain in effect for one hundred and twenty (120) days or until February 7, 2015 unless superseded by publication of a Notice of Final Rulemaking in the D.C. Register.  The Director of DHCF also gives notice of the intent to take final rulemaking action to adopt these proposed rules in not less than thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register.

 

Section 5015, REIMBURSEMENT, of Chapter 50, MEDICAID REIMBURSEMENT FOR PERSONAL CARE AIDE SERVICES, of Title 29, PUBLIC WELFARE, of the DCMR is amended and replaced as follows:

 

Subsection 5015.1 is amended to read as follows:

 

5015.1             Each Provider shall be reimbursed four dollars and sixty-five cents ($4.65) per fifteen minutes for allowable services rendered by a Personal Care Aid (PCA), of which no less than three dollars and forty cents ($3.40) per fifteen (15) minutes shall be paid to the PCA to comply with the Living Wage Act of 2006, effective June 8, 2006 (D.C. Law 16-118; D.C. Official Code §§ 2-220.01 et seq. (2012 Repl.)). 

 

Comments on the emergency and proposed rule shall be submitted, in writing, to Claudia Schlosberg, Acting Senior Deputy Director/State Medicaid Director, Department of Health Care Finance, 441 4^th Street, NW, 9^th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20001, via telephone on [phone], via email at [e-mail], or online at www.dcregs.dc.gov, within thirty (30) days after the date of publication of this notice in the D.C. Register.  Copies of the emergency and proposed rule may be obtained from the above address.