STATE OF WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES Aging and Long-Term Support Administration Home and Community Services Division PO Box 45600, Olympia, WA 98504-5600 H17-074 Policy and Procedure – October 06, 2017 TO: Area Agency on Aging (AAA) Directors FROM: Bea Rector, Director, Home and Community Services Division Don Clintsman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Developmental Disabilities Administration Chanh Ly, Director, Management Services Division SUBJECT: Home Care Agency Alignment of AAA Monitoring and Lookback Periods Purpose: To clarify timeframes for AAA monitoring and remediation of Background Checks, Fingerprint Checks, and Long-Term Care Worker Training and Certification requirements for contracted home care agencies. Background: AAAs are required to conduct regular monitoring of Home Care Agency compliance with required worker qualifications. State regulation requires remediation of any payment findings. Remediation in this context means addressing the finding through overpayment. Historically, home care agencies have been assessed overpayments for noncompliance with background checks, fingerprint checks, long-term care worker training and certification. It has come to the the timeframe to use when department’s attention that determining the overpayment is not clear. In addition, overpayments have been assessed in circumstance where initial background checks have been accomplished and showed no disqualifying crimes, but renewals have been late, missing, or inadequately documented. This has been the case because the State Medicaid Plan and Waivers included rechecks in the definition of qualified provider. Currently, AAA contracts are executed on the State Fiscal Year (SFY) in alignment with the uniform Statement of Work (SOW) that has been modified for each SFY. The intent is to have fewer modifications to the SOW in the future. Rate modifications that happen in July and January are incorporated by reference into the contracts.
STATE OF WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND HEALTH SERVICES Aging and Long-Term Support Administration Home and Community Services Division PO Box 45600, Olympia, WA 98504-5600 H17-074 – Policy and Procedure October 06, 2017 TO: Area Agency on Aging (AAA) Directors FROM: Bea Rector, Director, Home and Community Services Division Don Clintsman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Developmental Disabilities Administration Chanh Ly, Director, Management Services Division SUBJECT: Home Care Agency Alignment of AAA Monitoring and Lookback Periods Purpose: To clarify timeframes for AAA monitoring and remediation of Background Checks, Fingerprint Checks, and Long-Term Care Worker Training and Certification requirements for contracted home care agencies. Background: AAAs are required to conduct regular monitoring of Home Care Agency compliance with required worker qualifications. State regulation requires remediation of any payment findings. Remediation in this context means addressing the finding through overpayment. Historically, home care agencies have been assessed overpayments for noncompliance with background checks, fingerprint checks, long-term care worker training and certification. It has come to the department’s attention that the timeframe to use when determining the overpayment is not clear. In addition, overpayments have been assessed in circumstance where initial background checks have been accomplished and showed no disqualifying crimes, but renewals have been late, missing, or inadequately documented. This has been the case because the State Medicaid Plan and Waivers included rechecks in the definition of qualified provider. Currently, AAA contracts are executed on the State Fiscal Year (SFY) in alignment with the uniform Statement of Work (SOW) that has been modified for each SFY. The intent is to have fewer modifications to the SOW in the future. Rate modifications that happen in July and January are incorporated by reference into the contracts.
h17-074%20home%20care%20agency%20alignment%20of%20aaa%20monitoring%20and%20lookback%20periods%2010.2.17%20br%20changes.docx