E Relating to long term care ARTICLE 1 CONSUMER INFORMATION AND ASSISTANCE AND COMMUNITY BASED CARERequiring the commissioner of health in coordination with the commissioner of human services to monitor and analyze the distribution of older adult services in the different geographic areas of the state, specifying certain study requirements and requiring annual reports to the legislature; requiring the commissioners to identify and designate long term health care providers as critical access service sites, defining critical access service site and specifying certain duties of the commissioners; 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; prescribing the assessment procedure, requiring a community support plan for persons choosing to use community based services and requiring the teams to provide persons receiving assessment or support planning with certain information supplied by the commissioner of human services; providing for transition assistance to certain persons residing in nursing facilities, hospitals, regional treatment centers or intermediate care facilities for persons with mental retardation (ICF MR), specifying certain transition assistance requirements; requiring the commissioner to establish demonstration projects to target critical areas for improvement in long term care consultation services, requiring commissioner preliminary and final reports on the demonstration models to the legislature by certain dates; requiring preadmission screening of all applicants to medicaid certified nursing and boarding care facilities, specifying screening criteria and requirements, requiring case mix classification recommendations under certain conditions and providing for certain exemptions and emergency admissions; modifying certain billing and payment procedures; clarifying the purpose and goals of the alternative care program and modifying certain eligibility and covered services requirements; exempting residential care homes from housing with services registration requirements; modifying certain provisions providing for assisted living services under the alternative care 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 alternative care individual care and county biennial plans, provider contracting and client premiums payment requirements and the appropriation 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 and providing for the commissioner to award contracts for grants under the seniors agenda for independent living (SAIL) program to public and private nonprofit agencies to establish services to strengthen the ability of communities to provide home and community based services for elderly persons; requiring the commissioner to submit to the legislature by a certain date recommendations for creating coordinated service access at the county agency level for both publicly subsidized and nonsubsidized long term care services and housing options, specifying certain report content requirements; 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, certain closure plan requirements and certain rules relating to nursing facility cessations or service curtailments, relocation planning and preadmission screening and alternative care ARTICLE 2 LONG TERM CARE SYSTEM REFORM AND REIMBURSEMENTIncreasing 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; eliminating the provision prohibiting the carryforward of nursing home bed moratorium exception expenditures into the following biennium; 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, requiring involvement of the departments of health and human services in closure, curtailment or change plan development and specifying certain plan requirements; requiring the licensee to provide for the safe, orderly and appropriate relocation of residents, requiring cooperation with the departments, the office of ombudsman for older Minnesotans and the ombudsman for mental health and mental retardation; specifying certain responsibilities of the licensee before relocation, notice requirements, requiring establishment of an interdisciplinary team to be responsible for plan coordination and implementation, specifying certain team membership representation requirements; requiring and providing for licensee preparation of a resource list of relocation options; requiring assistance to residents in making site visits to available facilities; specifying certain resident personal possessions inventory and possessions and records transfer requirements; specifying certain responsibilities of the licensee after relocation, requiring certain status reports; specifying certain responsibilities of the local social service agency, specifying certain notice and plan compliance monitoring and resident visit requirements, requiring reports to the commissioners of health and human services of relocations endangering the health, safety or well being of residents; requiring the commissioner of human services to negotiate with the local agency for funding of relocation costs; subjecting licensees to correction orders and civil monetary penalties for violation of the requirements; providing for the conforming reuse of closed or curtailed nursing facilities; requiring the commissioner of health to establish a transition planning grant program to assist eligible nursing homes in developing strategic plans to meet the older adult service needs of the community, specifying certain strategic plan content requirements, providing for allocation of the grants and requiring the commissioner to evaluate the effectiveness of the program; requiring and providing for the commissioner to implement alternative procedures for the nursing home survey process, specifying certain survey interval requirements and requiring the commissioner to develop a process for identifying the survey cycles for skilled nursing facilities based on the compliance history of the facility, requiring public notice of the classification process and identification of the selected survey cycles for each facility, specifying certain monitoring requirements, requiring the commissioner to establish a process for surveying and monitoring certain facilities, prohibiting survey agency funding reductions upon implementation of the alternative survey process and requiring the commissioner to expand survey agency ability to conduct training and educational efforts for skilled nursing facilities and the public and to develop an alternative survey process evaluation procedure; requiring and providing for nursing and intermediate care facility (ICF MR) and waivered services provider medical assistance (MA) payment rate increases for operating costs and to increase the per hour pay rate of certain employees, specifying certain commissioner of human services calculation and nursing facility distribution and provider compliance plan requirements, providing additional increases for low rate facilities; providing for nursing facility voluntary closures and planning and development of community based alternatives; requiring the commissioner to establish a process to adjust the capacity and distribution of long term care services to equalize the supply and demand for different types of services, requiring the commissioner to issue requests for proposals to contract with regional long term care planning groups, specifying certain group membership representation requirements and duties; requiring the commissioner to establish a process to support and facilitate expansion of community based services under the alternative care and elderly waiver programs before the transitioning or closure of nursing facilities, specifying certain plan and county board and commissioner of health cooperation requirements; requiring and providing for the commissioner of human services to by a certain date implement and announce a program for closure or partial closure of nursing facilities, specifying certain application requirements, criteria for review, commissioner of health certification requirements and certain medical assistance payment rate adjustments; requiring and providing for the commissioner of human services to develop and implement a quality profile system for nursing facilities and other providers of long term care services, providing for certain quality measurement tools and consumer surveys and for the dissemination of quality profiles, requiring a public awareness campaign; expanding the reporting requirements of the commissioners of health and human services relating to maltreatment of vulnerable adults in facilities; extending the expiration date of a certain provision requiring frequent checking of incontinent nursing facility residents; requiring the commissioner of human services 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 to conduct a time motion study to determine the amount of time devoted to the care of high need nursing facility residents and report the results to the legislature by a certain date; requiring the commissioners of health and human services to develop a summary of federal nursing facility and community long term care regulations hampering state flexibility and placing burdens on the goal of achieving high quality care and optimum outcomes for consumers of services, to report to the legislature by a certain date on the number of nursing facility closures and alternatives to nursing facility care and to deliver to the governor and the legislature by a certain date a plan for updating staffing standards in nursing facilities and home and community based services; requiring the commissioner of health to update the nursing assistant and home health aide curriculum and to establish a long term care grant program demonstrating best practices and innovation for long term care service delivery and housing; specifying certain reference deletion instructions to the revisor of statutes; repealing a certain provision and certain rules relating to nursing facility cessation or curtailment of operations and certain rules relating to relocation planning ARTICLE 3 WORKFORCE RECRUITMENT AND RETENTIONModifying the definition of qualifying consortium under the job skills partnership health care and human services worker training program, specifying a grant limit and modifying local match requirements, expanding marketing and recruitment strategy requirements relating to meeting the needs of non-English speaking persons and providing for an expedited grant process; expanding the post-secondary summer health care interns program to nursing facilities and home care providers, modifying the costs payment requirement, eliminating a certain letter of recommendation requirement and expanding student eligibility; expanding the loan forgiveness program for nurses agreeing to practice in nursing homes or intermediate care facilities for persons with mental retardation or related conditions (ICF MR), payments to be split between the health care access and general fund education accounts; 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; requiring the commissioner of human services to establish and administer the long term care employee health insurance assistance program to provide the advantages of pooling for the purchase of health coverage for long term care employers, requiring the commissioner to solicit bids from health maintenance organizations (HMO) to provide health coverage to dependents of eligible employees, requiring the offering of coverage on a guaranteed issue and renewal basis, requiring the commissioner to determine coverage options, premium and contractual arrangements and other administrative matters and to consult with representatives of the long term care industry on issues relating to administration of the program, requiring the commissioner to establish procedures for employer application for coverage, providing for individual eligibility, specifying certain health plan coverage requirements and providing for the payment of premiums; requiring the commissioner to increase medical assistance (MA) reimbursement rates to nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities for persons with mental retardation or related conditions (ICF MR) and certain waivered services providers for employee scholarship costs and to provide job related training on the job site in English as a second language, specifying certain facility or provider reporting requirements; requiring the commissioner to seek waivers to obtain enhanced matching funds under the state children's health insurance program and to claim eligible expenditures against available funding under CHIP upon federal approval of the waiver; appropriating money to the commissioner of health to expand the summer health care interns and nurses loan forgiveness programs, to the commissioner of human services to implement and administer the scholarships and ESL job training programs and for the long term care employee health insurance assistance program and to the job skills partnership board to fund the health care and human services worker training program, repealing certain provisions relating to the programARTICLE 4 REGULATION OF SUPPLEMENTAL NURSING SERVICES AGENCIESRequiring and providing for the registration of supplemental nursing services agencies with the commissioner of health, requiring background checks at a fee and specifying certain application requirements and registration criteria, requiring commissioner establishment by rule of penalties for violation of the requirements; requiring the commissioner to establish a system for reporting complaints against supplemental nursing services agencies or employees; limiting charges to health care facilities by the agencies; requiring the commissioner to require health care facilities to periodically report certain information on the use of supplemental nursing services; appropriating money to the commissioner for services agencies regulation purposes ARTICLE 5 LONG TERM CARE INSURANCE Defining 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 requirements; appropriating money to the commissioner of human services for board long term care insurance coverage promotion purposes and for partnership federal waiver development and application (ja)