Legislative Session number- 82

Bill Name: SF2361

E Relating to the organization, operation and financing of state government,
providing for the financing of health and human services programsARTICLE 1
HEALTH DEPARTMENTSetting or increasing certain fees relating to wells and
borings; authorizing and providing for the commissioner of health to modify the
immunization schedules for children and post-secondary students during certain
portions of the year; requiring the commissioner to evaluate certain health
risks in establishing or revising safe drinking water standards; postponing
implementation of the nuclear regulatory commission agreement and establishing
fees for commissioner licensing of radioactive and source and special nuclear
material and a penalty for late payment, specifying certain commissioner
periodic safety inspection requirements; increasing the license fees for
hospitals, outpatient surgical centers, nursing and boarding care homes and
supervised living facilities; increasing the maximum capital improvement grant
amount for certain rural hospitals; decreasing and making permanent the vital
records surcharge; creating an exception to the hospital construction moratorium
for additional beds in a certain existing nonfederal hospital in Otter Tail
county; providing for hospital charity care aid to offset excess charity care
burdens at acute care short term hospitals; increasing the fees for
certification of environmental laboratories; requiring advance notice of service
terminations under the home care bill of rights, exceptions; requiring elderly
housing with services contracts to include the toll free complaint line for the
office of ombudsman for older Minnesotans; requiring and providing for voluntary
and informed consent before the performance of abortions, specifying certain
duties of physicians and certain toll free telephone number and web site
requirements, imposing penalties for certain violations; providing for the
distribution of federal maternal and child health block grant money to community
health boards, requiring the maternal and child health advisory task force to
periodically review measures used to define the variables of the distribution
formula and make change recommendations to the commissioner; modifying certain
other authorized uses of the block grant money; requiring the commissioner to
establish measurable outcomes to determine the effectiveness of AIDS prevention
grants in reducing the number of HIV cases, requiring periodic evaluation of
funded activities; modifying the purpose of and eligibility for family planning
grants, expanding eligibility to tribal governments and eliminating eligibility
for nonprofit corporations, prohibiting services relating to abortion;
specifying a teen pregnancy reduction goal, requiring and providing for the
commissioner to establish a grant program to reach the goal; requiring and
providing for commissioner community clinic grants to improve the ongoing
viability of clinic based safety net providers; specifying a health disparities
reduction goal relating to infant mortality and immunization rates for American
Indians and populations of color, requiring and providing for the commissioner
to establish a program to close the gap in certain priority areas; sunsetting
the existing home visiting programs for the prevention of child abuse and
neglect and requiring and providing for the commissioner to establish a new
family home visiting program to foster a healthy beginning for children in
certain low income families, prevent child abuse and neglect, reduce juvenile
delinquency and promote positive parenting, family health and economic self
sufficiency; increasing certain fees for food, beverage and lodging
establishments and removing the exemption for school food services; requiring
assisted living home care providers and housing with services establishments
with special care status units for persons with Alzheimer's disease or related
disorders to disclose in writing to the commissioner of health, the office of
ombudsman for older Minnesotans and persons seeking placement in the residence
or an authorized representative certain care or treatment information; requiring
the commissioner to develop recommendations for incentives to increase the
number of magnet hospitals in the state, to establish a program to reimburse
certain anti-tobacco use education activities for certain costs and to study and
identify the effects of nurse staffing shortages in health care facilities on
patient care and safety, requiring certain reports to the legislature; repealing
the allocation of maternal and child health block grant money to community
health services areas, the bone marrow donor education program and the
expiration date for the rural hospital capital improvement grant program ARTICLE
2 HEALTH CAREAuthorizing the commissioner of human services to administer the
federal drug rebate program for drugs purchased under the medical assistance
(MA) program, requiring the collection of rebates for drugs dispensed or
administered in outpatient settings from manufacturers signing rebate agreements
with the federal department of health and human services; expanding eligibility
for the prescription drug program; providing for the creation of a temporary
purchasing alliance stop loss fund for use by the commissioner of human services
to reimburse health plan companies for claims paid for employees of certain
employer members of qualifying purchasing alliances; requiring the commissioner
to establish a program to reimburse retired dentists for the license fee and the
cost of malpractice insurance in exchange for certain volunteer services at a
community dental or dental training clinic located at a state college or
university; prohibiting use of the hospital surcharge for inpatient hospital
payment rate setting purposes; requiring and providing for the commissioner to
adjust medical assistance inpatient hospital payment rates for certain diagnosis
related groups at hospitals located outside the metropolitan area; authorizing
the commissioner to contract with federally recognized Indian tribes to provide
early and periodic screening, diagnosis and treatment administrative services
for American Indian children; modifying medical assistance eligibility for
Minnesota family investment program participants; disregarding child support and
social security payments and other basic needs benefits as income for TEFRA
medical assistance eligibility for disabled children and temporarily
disregarding certain assets of persons no longer qualifying as employed persons
with disabilities due to loss of earnings; expanding medical assistance
eligibility for disabled children and for families and children; establishing a
different medically needy standard for persons with excess income under certain
conditions; modifying medical assistance eligibility for employed persons with
disabilities; providing medical assistance eligibility for certain persons
needing treatment for breast or cervical cancer without meeting the eligibility
criteria relating to income and assets; eliminating the expiration date for
medical assistance coverage of telemedicine consultations; providing medical
assistance coverage for home based intensive early intervention behavior therapy
for children with autistic spectrum disorders; providing an honorarium and
mileage reimbursement for members of the drug formulary committee and increasing
the honorarium and providing a mileage reimbursement for members of the drug
utilization review board; increasing the pharmacy dispensing fee for certain
products, modifying the estimated actual acquisition cost for drugs with a
wholesale price reduced by actions of the national association of medicaid fraud
control units and setting the basis for determining the amount of payment for
drugs administered in outpatient settings; increasing the mileage rate for
special transportation services costs reimbursement purposes and modifying the
payment for ambulance services; providing medical assistance coverage for
certain oral language interpreter services; authorizing federally qualified
health centers and rural health clinics to elect to be paid under the federal
prospective payment system or an alternative payment methodology; providing for
full federal match for MinnesotaCare payments to Indian health services
facilities for enrollees eligible for federal financial participation,
MinnesotaCare payments to be the same as medical assistance payment rates for
enrollees ineligible for federal financial participation; requiring and
providing for commissioner payments from governmental hospitals to certain
safety net hospitals contingent on federal approval of certain intergovernmental
transfers and payments, requiring certain adjustments under certain conditions;
exempting persons eligible for medical assistance due to breast or cervical
cancer treatment needs from the medical assistance prepayment demonstration
program, exception; increasing the capitation rates under the program for
nonmetropolitan counties and requiring a commissioner pro rata adjustment in the
rates paid to Hennepin county to make the increase budget neutral; requiring the
commissioner to establish a dental services demonstration project in Crow Wing,
Todd, Morrison, Wadena and Cass counties to provide dental services to medical
assistance, general assistance medical care and MinnesotaCare recipients;
replacing certain medical assistance hospital outpatient payment rates with a
budget neutral prospective payment system, requiring the commissioner to provide
a proposal to the legislature to define and implement the system; setting the
medical assistance reimbursement rate for diagnostic examinations and dental
x-rays for children, providing for increased reimbursements to critical access
dental providers; requiring the commissioner to establish a medical assistance
demonstration project for family planning services; modifying eligibility for
GAMC relating to countable income; eliminating automatic medical assistance
eligibility for work first participants; clarifying the effective date for
disenrollment from the MinnesotaCare program for nonpayment of premium;
providing for coverage under the program for health care services provided at
Indian health services facilities, providing for the payment of enhanced rates;
modifying certain commissioner welfare laws simplification requirements;
delaying the due date for the report by the commissioner on programs for senior
citizens; requiring commissioner notice of the new premium schedule to employed
persons with disabilities receiving medical assistance; requiring the
commissioner to establish a medication therapy management pilot program for
medical assistance enrollees, requiring establishment of an advisory committee;
requiring the commissioner to identify nonfinancial barriers to increased
provider enrollment and retention in state health care programs and to implement
procedures to address the barriers, requiring a report to the legislature by a
certain date; repealing certain dental services contracting authority of the
commissioner and a certain provision providing continued medical assistance
eligibility for MFIP participants discontinuing monthly cash assistance ARTICLE
3 CONTINUING CARE AND HOME CAREClarifying certain provisions providing for
medical assistance rate adjustments for residential facilities under
receivership, providing for recovery; modifying the county guaranteed floor for
semi-independent living services for persons with mental retardation or related
conditions; requiring cancellation of certain excess funds in the chemical
dependency reserve account to the general fund; reducing the limit on increases
in payment rates for vendors of chemical dependency treatment services;
modifying chemical dependency treatment services eligibility for certain
persons; authorizing the commissioner of human services to pay for tribal
chemical dependency services according to federally approved rates in lieu of
rates negotiated by counties; authorizing commissioner grants to eligible
vendors for the development, implementation and evaluation of case management
services for individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus to
increase access to cost effective health care services, to reduce the risk of
transmission, to ensure the meeting of basic client needs and to increase client
access to community supports or services; modifying the consumer support program
for persons with functional limitations, eliminating the program as an
alternative to the alternative care program and nursing facility services and
eliminating eligibility for recipients of alternative care services and
residents of nursing or intermediate care facility residents, authorizing
transfer to the program of recipients of private duty nursing services,
modifying the definition of supports, making optional the requirement for the
commissioner to use a certain percentage of county allocations for
administrative expenses and requiring grant funds unexpended by consumers to be
annually returned to the state; modifying the authority of recipients of private
duty nursing or personal care assistant services under medical assistance (MA)
to use approved hours outside the home and eliminating the prohibition on
reimbursement for services provided by certain relatives or legal guardians;
extending eligibility for mental health case management services under medical
assistance for residents of nursing or intermediate care facilities or
hospitals; providing for home care and relocation targeted case management
services under medical assistance, specifying certain eligibility requirements
and certain qualification and certification standards and services eligible for
reimbursement, specifying certain case manager assignment timeline and
documentation and commissioner evaluation requirements, requiring the
commissioner to set payment rates for targeted case management; defining or
redefining certain terms relating to home care services and providing medical
assistance coverage for personal care assistant services and supports furnished
to assist in accomplishing activities of daily living, amount and type of
services authorized to be based on an assessment of recipient needs in certain
areas; providing for certain supervision options; increasing the limit on
authorized skilled nurse visits, eliminating the prior authorization requirement
for home health services provided by licensed nurses and authorizing private
duty nursing services for complex and regular care after a certain date;
eliminating hospice services as a noncovered service; replacing the fiscal agent
option for personal care assistant services with a fiscal intermediary option
and modifying certain requirements of recipients or responsible parties;
clarifying the basis for calculation of medical assistance payments for shared
private duty nursing care; requiring and providing for the commissioner after
receiving federal waiver authority to implement a consumer directed home care
demonstration project to be administered by county agencies, tribal governments
or administrative entities under contract with the state, providing for grant
awards; providing medical assistance coverage for skilled nurse visits provided
via telehomecare and for physical and occupational therapy and related services;
providing certain hardship criteria for medical assistance coverage of private
duty nursing services provided by certain relatives or legal guardians;
requiring the commissioner to establish a quality assurance plan for personal
care assistant services, specifying certain plan content requirements; requiring
and providing for preadmission screening of certain younger individuals admitted
to nursing facilities from hospitals; restricting the authority of the
commissioner of finance to reduce expenditure forecasts during times of existing
waiting lists for waiver services for persons with mental retardation or related
conditions, requiring funds resulting from projected expenditure reductions to
be used by the commissioner of human services to serve persons with
developmental disabilities through the home and community based waiver;
requiring the commissioner to submit to the federal health care financing
administration by a certain date an amendment to the waiver to expand the
availability of consumer directed community support services and to contract
with counties or other entities to administer the services; changing the date
for the annual commissioner report on county and state use of available
resources for the home and community based waiver; providing for a choice of
mental retardation case management service providers; specifying certain
requirements for provision of day services by residential service providers;
eliminating the requirement for approval of traumatic brain injury waiver
eligibility or care plans under the traumatic brain injury program; extending
the expiration date of the quality assurance project in Dodge, Fillmore,
Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha and Winona
counties and the region 10 quality assurance commission, clarifying certain
aspects of the project, requiring the commissioner in consultation with the
commission to examine the feasibility of expanding the project to other
populations or geographic areas and to seek federal authority to waive
provisions of ICF MR regulations to enable the demonstration and evaluation of
the alternative quality assurance system for ICF MRs under the project and the
commission in consultation with the commissioner to evaluate the system,
requiring reports to the legislature; providing for a county option to
participate in the project, notice requirements; authorizing the commissioner to
apply for home and community based service waivers to serve certain younger
disabled persons determined to require the level of care provided in a nursing
home or hospital, specifying certain waivered and case management services,
assessment and reassessment and services and supports requirements, requiring
individualized service plans and providing for the payment of services and
support costs; requiring the commissioner to seek to amend the traumatic brain
injury waiver to include persons with an acquired or degenerative disease
demonstrating cognitive impairment; modifying the voluntary enrollment provision
under the prepayment demonstration project for alternative integrated long term
care services; increasing the standard of assistance under the Minnesota
supplemental aid (MSA) act for the shelter needy, defining shelter needy;
modifying the group residential housing supplementary service rate for a certain
facility in Hennepin county serving chemically dependent clientele; establishing
a respite care pilot project for family adult foster care providers under the
GRH program; adding representatives of the department of human services to the
day training and habilitation task force and requiring and providing for the
commissioner by a certain date to initiate a pilot project for a day training
and habilitation services individualized payment rate structure, specifying
certain pilot project requirements and options, sunsetting the project upon
implementation of a new statewide rate structure to be recommended by the task
force in a report to the legislature by a certain date evaluating the pilot
project and specifying certain rate setting requirements and county board
responsibilities; requiring the commissioner to study day training and
habilitation vendor rates for underfunding determination purposes, to develop
recommendations to revise the funding methodology for SILS and to ensure the
continuation of services to developmentally disabled persons covered by social
services supplemental grants before a certain date; requiring certain reports to
the legislature and specifying certain federal waiver or approval request
requirements of the commissioner; repealing county social service grants for
former GRH recipients. the special grants to community health boards or
nonprofit corporations for the development of case management services for HIV
AIDS infected persons, the requirement for the commissioner to maximize federal
funds for the consumer support program, certain alternative care and waivered
service program restructuring plan and modification requirements, the special
reimbursement rates for home health aide services for Anoka, Aitkin, Polk and
Pennington counties, the home and community based waiver study and application
requirement for chronically ill children and disabled persons and certain rules
regulating home health services and nursing facility preadmission screening
ARTICLE 4 CONSUMER INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE AND COMMUNITY BASED CARE Requiring
the commissioner of health to monitor and analyze the distribution of older
adult services including the impact of amendments to the nursing home moratorium
law for annual reporting to the legislature and the commissioners of health and
human services to identify and designate long term health care providers as
critical access service sites, defining critical access service site; providing
for the awarding of grants for home sharing programs; requiring the board on
aging to operate a statewide information and assistance service (senior linkage
line) to aid older residents and families in making informed choices relating to
long term care options and health care benefits, specifying certain availability
and service requirements; creating the community services development grants
program under the administration of the commissioner of human services for the
establishment of new older adult services as alternatives to nursing facility
care, specifying eligibility and a match requirement; changing the medical
assistance (MA) nursing facility preadmission screening program to long term
care consultation services, defining long term care consultation services and
modifying the purpose, requiring coordination with certain other services to
offer a variety of cost effective alternatives to persons with disabilities and
elderly persons and requiring county agencies providing consultation services to
encourage the use of volunteers, changing local screening teams to long term
care consultation teams, modifying certain duties and authorizing county boards
to designate public health or social services as the lead agency for the
consultation services, specifying certain assessment, support planning,
transition assistance and preadmission screening requirements; clarifying the
purpose and goals of the alternative care program, modifying certain eligibility
and covered services requirements and certain provisions providing for assisted
living services under the program, regulating cash payments, authorizing the
commissioner to contract with federally recognized Indian tribes to serve as the
lead agency responsible for the local administration of the alternative care
program; modifying certain individual care and county biennial plan, provider
contracting and client premiums payment requirements and clarifying the
alternative care allocation formula, requiring the commissioner to establish
statewide maximum and eliminate county specific service rate limits to improve
access to community services and eliminate payment disparities between the
alternative care and elderly waiver programs, authorizing county negotiation of
individual service rates with vendors for actual costs up to the statewide
maximum service rate limit; modifying certain provisions regulating the home and
community based waiver, modifying the monthly cost limits and the adult foster
care and assisted living services payment rates; requiring the commissioner to
develop a medical assistance pilot project on senior services delivered
according to a flexible voucher program and providing an alternative to the
purchase of services based on consumer choice and to recommend a method for
creating coordinated services access at the county agency level for publicly
subsidized and nonsubsidized long term care services and housing options;
requiring the board on aging to present recommendations to the legislature by a
certain date on providing in home and out of home respite care services on a
sliding scale basis under the federal older Americans act; repealing certain
nursing facility preadmission screening and alternative care program provisions,
the special medical assistance reimbursement rates for Anoka, Aitkin, Polk and
Pennington counties under the elderly waiver program and certain enrollment
conversion requirements and certain rules relating to nursing facility
cessations or service curtailments, relocation planning and preadmission
screening and alternative careARTICLE 5 LONG TERM CARE REFORM AND
REIMBURSEMENTRequiring the commissioner of health to establish medical
assistance (MA) resident reimbursement classifications based on assessments of
residents of nursing and boarding care homes, specifying a timeline, certain
resident reimbursement classifications basis and establishment criteria, certain
resident assessment requirements and a facility assessment schedule, requiring
classification into certain groups; requiring the submission of assessment
information to the commissioner by the facilities, imposing a penalty for
noncompliance with assessment and submittal requirements; providing for notice
to residents of the case mix classification by the commissioner or the facility;
providing for reconsideration of resident classifications by the commissioner,
prescribing the reconsideration procedure; specifying certain commissioner
resident assessment audit requirements for implementation of the new resident
classification system; increasing the dollar limit for construction projects
under the nursing home bed moratorium and expanding the definition of project
construction costs to new technology implemented as part of the project,
defining technology; creating exceptions to the moratorium for a certain
facility undergoing replacement or remodeling as part of a planned closure, for
a certain total replacement project in Wilkin county, for additional beds to
provide residential services for the physically handicapped in a certain nursing
home in Duluth and for certain replacement and transfer projects in Anoka
county; expanding the criteria for review of proposals for moratorium
exceptions; providing for the relocation of licensed nursing facility residents
upon facility closure or curtailment, reduction or change of operations or
services, specifying certain licensee notice requirements, prescribing the
planning process, specifying certain duties of the local social service agency
and the licensee, providing for reimbursement under medical assistance (MA) to
nursing homes for costs incurred during the closure process and for transition
planning grants through a program to be established by the commissioner;
requiring and providing for the commissioner to implement alternative procedures
for the nursing home survey process; requiring the commissioners of health and
human services to establish a long term care grant program demonstrating best
practices and innovation for long term care service delivery and housing and to
develop and implement a quality profile system for nursing facilities and other
long term care service providers; establishing payment rates under medical
assistance for the first 90 days after admission to a nursing facility and
providing nursing facility operating cost payment rate increases for rate years
beginning July 1, 2001 and 2002; providing additional increases for low rate
metropolitan area facilities and establishing a rate floor for nursing
facilities located outside the metropolitan area; requiring the commissioner of
human services to exclude adjustments for raw food costs related to providing
special diets based on religious beliefs from operating cost per diem
calculations; providing adjustments to nursing facility operating cost and
property related payment rates under the contractual alternative payment
demonstration project for increases in health department licensing fees and
providing case mix payment rate increases under the project for certain
facilities in Morrison, Hennepin and Anoka counties; establishing the method and
criteria used to determine resident reimbursement classifications based on
nursing and boarding care homes resident assessments, requiring and providing
for the assignment of case mix indices to resident classes and the determination
of payment rates by the commissioner of human services; establishing a process
for the voluntary closure of nursing facilities and providing for the planning
and development of community based alternatives; increasing the total operating
payment rate for intermediate care facilities for persons with mental
retardation or related conditions (ICF MR) for rate years beginning July 1, 2001
and 2002; providing for reimbursement for mental health services to certain
facilities; requiring the commissioner to fund the entire state share of medical
assistance reimbursement for certain residential and day habilitation services
from the medical assistance account, prohibiting transfers from county community
social service allocations; requiring the commissioner to develop and report to
the legislature by a certain date on a system to replace the current nursing
facility reimbursement system under medical assistance, specifying certain
consultation and system requirements; requiring the commissioner of health to
submit a report to the legislature by a certain date on implementation of a
licensure program for subacute care; requiring the commissioners of health and
human services by certain dates to develop a summary of federal nursing facility
and community long term care regulations hampering state flexibility, to report
to the legislature on the number of nursing facility closures, the development
of alternatives to nursing facility care, resulting problems with access to long
term care services and on minimum nurse staffing standards and to evaluate long
term care provider reporting requirements; requiring the commissioner of human
services to establish and implement a pilot project to contract with nursing
facilities eligible to receive medical assistance payments and serving persons
with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS); repealing certain requirements for
the commissioner of health to assess the appropriateness and quality of care and
services furnished to private paying residents in nursing and boarding care
homes certified for participation in the medical assistance program and for the
commissioner of human services to determine the maximum private pay case mix
payment rates for nursing facilities under the contractual alternative
demonstration project ARTICLE 6 WORK FORCE Expanding the summer health care
interns program to nursing facilities and home care providers and post-secondary
summer health care intern eligibility to students in health care training
programs and eliminating certain costs payment restrictions; authorizing
commissioner of health grants to qualifying consortia for intergenerational
programs to encourage middle and high school students to work and volunteer in
health care and long term care settings, specifying grant qualification
requirements; modifying certain provisions providing for resident attendants in
nursing homes, authorizing resident transporting assistance and extending the
deadline for the commissioner to request a federal waiver to implement the
program; authorizing issuance by the board of nursing of temporary permits to
applicants for licensure educated in foreign countries and completing
requirements for licensure except the examination, requiring practice under
direct supervision of a registered nurse (RN) ARTICLE 7 REGULATION OF
SUPPLEMENTAL NURSING SERVICES AGENCIESRequiring and providing for the
registration of supplemental nursing services agencies serving health care
facilities with the commissioner of health, fee, prescribing the procedure,
requiring certain information for registration purposes; requiring the
commissioner to establish a system for reporting complaints against supplemental
nursing services agencies or employees; imposing maximum nursing home charges
and providing for the determination of weighted average wage rates for medical
assistance (MA) reimbursement purposes; appropriating fees collected by the
commissioner of human services for background studies of licensees to the
commissioner for background studies purposes and specifying certain registered
supplemental nursing services agencies background studies requirements;
requiring the commissioner of human services to require nursing facilities and
other long term care services providers to periodically report on the use of
supplemental nursing services ARTICLE 8 LONG TERM CARE INSURANCEDefining certain
additional terms for qualified long term care insurance policies regulation
purposes; requiring insurers to provide certain information to the commissioner
of commerce before insurance sale availability; specifying certain rating
practices disclosure and nonforfeiture benefit requirements of long term care
and qualified long term care policies and regulating premium rate schedule
increases; exempting certain policies from certain minimum loss ratio
requirements; requiring the board on aging to promote the provision of employer
sponsored long term care insurance; requiring the commissioners of human
services and commerce subject to federal waiver approval to establish the
Minnesota partnership for long term care program to provide for the financing of
long term care through a combination of private insurance and medical assistance
(MA), specifying eligibility and partnership policy requirementsARTICLE 9 MENTAL
HEALTH AND CIVIL COMMITMENTRequiring the commissioner of health to make suicide
prevention an important public health goal of the state, to conduct suicide
prevention activities to accomplish the goal and to implement a suicide
prevention plan in collaboration with the departments of human services, public
safety and children, families and learning and other appropriate agencies,
organizations and institutions, requiring the commissioner to establish a grant
program for community based programs, to promote the use of employee assistance
and workplace programs to support employees with psychiatric illnesses and
substance abuse disorders and to provide training and technical assistance to
local public health and other community based professionals to provide for
integrated implementation of best practices for preventing suicides, specifying
certain suicide data collection and reporting requirements and requiring
commissioner periodic evaluations of the impact and outcomes of the suicide
prevention plan and biennial reports to the legislature; defining or redefining
certain terms under the adult and children's mental health acts; requiring and
providing for appropriate settings for children to receive mental health
services; providing for transition services to young adults under the children's
community based mental health fund and for deficiency funding of the adult
mental health crisis housing assistance program; requiring and providing for the
commissioner of human services to establish a continuing care benefit program
for acute care hospital inpatient treatment of persons with mental illness;
providing medical assistance (MA) coverage for adult rehabilitative mental
health services, for adult mental health crisis response and stabilization
services, for mental health case management services provided by Indian health
services or by agencies operated by Indian tribes and for mental health provider
travel time under certain conditions; providing a provider appeal process for
denial of medical assistance coverage for mental health services; providing
medical assistance reimbursement for medication management provided to
psychiatric patients by outpatient or home based mental health, day treatment
and family community support services; prohibiting the commissioner of public
safety from including suicide statistics in crime statistics compilations;
requiring the commissioner of human services to notify counties, health plan
companies, health care providers and benefit program enrollees of the
establishment of the continuing care benefit program for persons with mental
illness, to study and make recommendations to the legislature by a certain date
on the length of stay for acute care hospital inpatient treatment of medicare
eligible persons with mental illness and to review funding methods for adult
residential services grants and develop a payment system accounting for client
difficulty of care for presentation to the legislature by a certain date ARTICLE
10 ASSISTANCE PROGRAMSModifying the federal reporting requirement of the
commissioner of human services relating to undocumented persons; requiring the
commissioner to treat financial assistance expenditures made to or on behalf of
resident minor children of two parent Minnesota family investment program
eligible households as expenditures under a separately funded state program;
clarifying and expanding the responsibility of county agencies to provide
certain information to persons inquiring about or applying for MFIP assistance;
specifying certain applicant screening and interviewing requirements; providing
for MFIP eligibility after disqualification due to noncompliance with program
requirements; making permanent the indexing requirement for the MFIP exit level
and eliminating the requirement for the earned income disregard percentage to be
the same as the percentage implemented on a certain date; modifying certain
conditions for MFIP eligibility after conviction of a drug offense; specifying
certain reading level and foreign language requirements for notices of adverse
action; requiring and providing for case review for participants approaching the
60 month time limit and for hardship extensions for certain participants;
clarifying the county orientation requirement and exemptions from the
requirement; specifying certain notice of intent or adverse action and
alternative employment plan review requirements for sanctions imposition
purposes, modifying certain sanctions for subsequent occurrences of
noncompliance and providing for sanction status after disqualification;
modifying certain county employment and training services and local service unit
plan content requirements; clarifying the employment and training services
exemption for participants with ill or incapacitated family members and
eliminating the exemptions for certain parents working part time; modifying
certain services continuation requirements; expanding eligibility for local
intervention self sufficiency grants to certain participants reaching the 60
month time limit; expanding commissioner county performance quarterly report
content requirements and requiring annual performance reports to counties and
the legislature; expanding consideration requirements of the commissioner
relating to the development of county performance measures; modifying certain
provisions relating to the supportive housing and managed care pilot project
under the work first program; making optional the requirement for county boards
to levy to defray the cost of programs for support of the poor; requiring the
commissioner of economic security to require general employment and training
programs receiving state funds to make available information relating to
opportunities for women in nontraditional careers in the trades and technical
occupations; extending the deadline for legal noncitizen eligibility for state
funded programs; requiring the commissioner of human services to report to the
legislature by a certain date on a proposal for assessing county MFIP
performance outcomes; repealing a certain provision relating to application of
the 60 month time limit to victims of domestic violence, certain applicant
screening requirements and the transitional rule relating to the imposition of
sanctions ARTICLE 11 DHS LICENSINGModifying certain provisions relating to the
release of or access to information on health or human services licensees for
disqualification purposes; authorizing the release of certain information
relating to substantiated maltreatment cases; requiring background checks on
individuals employed by and controlling persons of supplemental nursing services
agencies; modifying certain maltreatment determination and subsequent action
requirements of the health related licensing boards, specifying certain notice
requirements; requiring commissioner of human services notice to agencies
initiating background studies of the reason for licensure disqualification in
cases of failure of the subject to cooperate or of substantiated maltreatment;
modifying the time limit for submission of maltreatment and resulting
disqualification determination reconsideration requests, maltreatment
determination to be deemed conclusive in cases of no reconsideration request,
requiring the commissioner to rescind the disqualification upon a finding of
incorrect information as the basis for disqualification, modifying the time
limit for commissioner response to reconsideration requests based on the
correctness or accuracy of the information relied on to disqualify the person
and the risk of harm and providing for consolidated reconsiderations or fair
hearings under certain conditions; modifying the contested case procedure;
specifying the authority of licensing boards to impose disciplinary or
corrective action in substantiated maltreatment cases, specifying certain notice
requirements of the commissioner and granting the commissioner the authority to
monitor and enforce licensing board restrictions; authorizing the commissioner
to deny licenses to applicants failing to comply with applicable laws or rules
or withholding relevant information from or submitting false information in
connection with a license application or during an investigation; providing for
commissioner issuance of conditional licenses under certain conditions and
modifying the authority of the commissioner to impose fines, providing for
conditional license reconsideration; modifying certain sanctions, imposing
liability on the commissioner for actual damages for days of lost service in
certain temporary immediate license suspension cases, providing for expedited
hearings for immediate license suspension under certain conditions; imposing
certain responsibility on license holders ordered to pay fines; providing for
consolidated contested case hearings for sanctions based on maltreatment
determinations and disqualifications, modifying certain burden of proof
requirements; requiring the commissioner to establish a child maltreatment
review panel to review investigating agency determinations relating to
maltreatment in facilities, prescribing the review procedure; providing a
standard of evidence for disqualification hearings; defining threatened injury
for child maltreatment reporting purposes; designating the department of human
services as the agency responsible for assessing or investigating allegations of
maltreatment in juvenile correctional facilities; granting the commissioner
access to certain birth records and recognitions of parentage data to identify
children under the threat of injury by persons responsible for care of the child
and providing for facility access for investigation purposes, notice
requirements; defining maltreatment of a child in a facility under the child
abuse reporting law; providing for administrative reconsideration of
disqualification based on child or vulnerable adult serious or recurring
maltreatment in facilities; authorizing or requiring investigating agencies to
exchange or share certain not public data for further child maltreatment review
or investigation purposes; requiring facility operator notice to mandated
reporters of certain duties and of the prohibition against retaliation for good
faith reporting; specifying certain additional requirements of mandated
reporters under the vulnerable adult abuse reporting law; expanding exemptions
from the definition of neglect for vulnerable adult maltreatment reporting
purposes and subjecting facilities to correction orders under certain
conditions; requiring joint programs for training child abuse services
professionals in the appropriate techniques for abuse assessment and
investigation to include methods for interviewing alleged victims and conducting
investigations in cases of developmentally, physically or mentally disabled
victims; requiring the commissioners of health or human services to pursue
changes to federal law to allow greater discretion on disciplinary activities of
unlicensed health care workers and apply for federal waivers or approval to
allow for a set-aside process relating to disqualifications for nurse aides in
nursing homes; requiring the commissioner of health to examine federal rules and
regulations prohibiting neglect, abuse and financial exploitation of residents
in licensed nursing facilities and to apply for waivers by a certain date to
allow state control of the identification and prevention of maltreatment of
residents in licensed nursing facilities and of disqualification or discipline
of persons providing services to the residents ARTICLE 12
MISCELLANEOUSEstablishing requirements for the use of swimming pools at family
day care or group family day care homes and exempting the pools from the
requirements for public pools; requiring the board of social work to deposit
fees paid by license applicants for criminal history background checks into the
miscellaneous special revenue fund for bureau of criminal apprehension (BCA)
reimbursement purposes; temporarily requiring certain transfers from the public
institutions shared services account to the general fund; providing for public
guardianship alternatives for persons with mental retardation; extending the
expiration date for the council on disability; providing additional
circumstances supporting involuntary termination of parental rights relating to
prior involuntary terminations, expanding the grandparent notice requirement,
authorizing grandparents to seek a court order granting visitation rights
following termination of parental rights; requiring the emergency medical
services (EMS) regulatory board in consultation with the department of public
safety to study and report to the legislature by a certain date on the
availability of automatic defibrillators outside the metropolitan area;
requiring the commissioner of human services and the Cass county board to
evaluate the feasibility of allowing Cass county to buy or lease unused portions
of the Ah-Gwah-Ching center; requiring the commissioner to study the
disproportionate number of African American children represented in out of home
placements and children in the child protection system and to make certain
recommendations for reduction to the legislature by a certain date; approving
certain fee modifications proposed by the governor for the boards of nursing and
marriage and family therapy; repealing certain special treatment services
responsibilities of public guardians or conservators for the mentally retarded
ARTICLE 13 APPROPRIATIONS Providing certain contingency appropriations to the
commissioner of human services for court ordered mental health treatment, for
civil commitment, for child support collection and enforcement and for patient
protections and appropriating money to the commissioner for core licensing
activities, for expedited maltreatment investigations, for public guardianship
alternatives establishment incentives, for establishment of the child
maltreatment review panel, for financial and management operations, for the
administrative reimbursement pass through, for children's services and adoption
assistance incentive grants, for children's services management, for basic
health care and MinnesotaCare grants, for general assistance medical care
(GAMC), for establishment of the purchasing alliance stop loss fund, for health
care management, policy administration and operations, for state operated
services restructuring, for chemical dependency programs, for continuing care,
community social services block, aging adult and deaf and hard of hearing
services, mental health and community support grants, for medical assistance
(MA) long term care waivers and facilities and home care including certain
provider rate increases, for the community services development grants program,
for alternative care grants, for group residential housing (GRH), for continuing
care management including allocations to counties for nursing facility resident
relocation costs and the region 10 quality assurance commission, for economic
support grants including nontraditional career assistance, the supportive
housing and managed care pilot project, the intensive intervention transitional
employment training project in Hennepin county and welfare to work grants, for
child support enforcement, for general assistance (GA), for Minnesota
supplemental aid (MSA), for refugee services, for economic support management,
policy administration and operations and for development of an employment
services tracking system in collaboration with the department of economic
security, to the commissioner of health for the reduction of health disparities,
for teen pregnancy and suicide prevention, for the poison information system,
for the TANF home visiting program, for the health care safety net, for rural
hospital capital improvement grants, for identification of and response to
emerging health threats and for management and support services, to the veterans
nursing homes board, to the health related licensing boards, to the emergency
medical services (EMS) regulatory board, to the council on disability, to the
ombudsmen for mental health and mental retardation and for families and to the
commissioner of children, families and learning for the Minnesota family
investment program (MFIP) child care assistance program; authorizing certain
fund transfers and providing for the continued availability of certain
appropriations; prohibiting the use in indirect costs to fund health or human
services programs; sunsetting uncondified language; prohibiting the
commissioners of health and human services in making agency financial
adjustments relating to funding levels for salary supplements and rent increases
from laying off employees providing direct health care or mental health services
to patients or reducing the level of funding for the provision of the services;
authorizing the commissioner of human services in the event of disruption of
technical systems or computer operations to use available grant appropriations
to ensure continuity of payments to maintain the health, safety and well being
of clients served by department programs; appropriating the federal
administrative reimbursement resulting from MinnesotaCare outreach grants and
the Minnesota senior health options project to the commissioner for the
activities; regulating expenditures from the temporary assistance for needy
families block grant and specifying certain maintenance of effort (MOE)
requirements; specifying the availability of social services block grant funds
for distribution to counties for concurrent permanency planning; restricting
commissioner of health approval of nursing home bed moratorium exception
projects; requiring the commissioner of revenue with the assistance of the
commissioner of human services to calculate the value of the refundable portion
of the working family credits qualifying for federal reimbursement from the TANF
block grant; requiring the commissioner of human services to set the general
assistance monthly standard for certain units at a certain dollar amount and to
reduce quarterly food stamp administrative reimbursement to counties for certain
fiscal years; reducing the base level funding for family planning special
project grants; authorizing and providing for quarterly installments of health
care facility license fees; modifying certain financial institution child
support or maintenance data match requirements; providing for the payment of
wages for project labor; requiring the commissioners of health and human
services to exchange birth record and recognitions of parentage data for the
identification of children subject to threatened injury by persons responsible
for care of the child using existing resources and information systems (mk, ja)