Under current law, the governor may enter into an agreement with the federal
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discontinue certain federal licensing and related
regulatory authority with respect to by-product material (certain radioactive
material and the tailings or waste from ores processed for uranium or thorium),
source material (any material except special nuclear material that contains a
specified percentage of uranium or thorium), and special nuclear material (uranium
enriched in specified isotopes and plutonium). Rules that DHFS must promulgate
for by-product, source, and special nuclear material must be no less stringent than
federal requirements.
This bill modifies the definition of "source material" to be uranium, thorium, or
any combination of the two in any physical or chemical form, or ores that contain, by
weight, 0.05% of uranium, thorium, or a combination of the two. The bill requires
that DHFS's rules be compatible with federal requirements; however, the rules must
also be in accordance with specific federal requirements relating to by-product
material. The bill also authorizes DHFS to develop qualification, certification,
training, and experience requirements and to recognize certification by another
state or a nationally recognized organization that is substantially equivalent to the
DHFS certification, for persons who operate radiation generating equipment; who
utilize, store, transfer, transport, or possess radioactive materials; or who act as
radiation safety consultants.
Currently, DHFS administers a breast cancer screening program that awards
grants to hospitals and other organizations to provide breast cancer screening
services to women who are 40 years of age or older. As part of this program, DHFS
must expend $20,000 annually to develop and provide media announcements and
educational materials concerning the need for and availability of breast cancer
screening services to women in areas served by the program.
DHFS also currently administers a low-income women health screening
program that awards grants to applicants to provide health care screening, referral,
follow-up, and patient education services to low-income, underinsured, and
uninsured women.
This bill eliminates the requirement that DHFS expend at least $20,000 in each
fiscal year for developing and providing media announcements and educational
materials under the breast cancer screening program. The bill requires DHFS to
allocate $20,000 for developing and providing media services and educational
materials to promote both health care services available under the Low-Income
Women Health Screening Program and to promote breast cancer screening services
available under the breast cancer screening program.
Current law requires DHFS to expend under the federal Preventive Health
Services Project Grant Program $25,000 in each fiscal year for a state medical
director for the state Emergency Medical Services (EMS) program. This bill
eliminates this requirement.
Wisconsin works
Under current law, DWD administers the Wisconsin Works (W-2) Child Care
Subsidy Program. Under this program, an individual who meets certain
nonfinancial and financial eligibility requirements and who is the parent, foster
parent, guardian, or kinship care relative of a child under the age of 13 or, if the child
is disabled, under the age of 19, may be eligible for a child care subsidy if the
individual needs child care to work or to pursue basic or technical college education.
A kinship care relative is an individual who receives monthly payments under the
Kinship Care Program. The Kinship Care Program provides monthly payments to
individuals who are relatives of children and who provide care and maintenance for
the children either temporarily (short-term kinship care relative) or on a more
permanent basis (long-term kinship care relative).
Under this bill, if DWD determines that moneys allocated for the Child Care
Subsidy Program are insufficient to provide the child care subsidy to all eligible
individuals, DWD may develop a plan to limit participation in the Child Care
Subsidy Program. If the secretary of administration approves the plan, DWD may
implement it.
Under current law, to be eligible for the child care subsidy, a long-term kinship
care relative must cooperate with child support enforcement efforts, provide DWD
with any information that DWD requires, and assign to DWD any right the
individual has to child or spousal support or maintenance. Short-term kinship care
relatives are not required to meet these requirements. Under current law, a
short-term kinship care relative is eligible for the child care subsidy if the child's
biological or adoptive family has income that is at or below 200% of the federal
poverty line while a long-term kinship care relative must have income that is at or
below 185% of the federal poverty line to be eligible for the child care subsidy. Under
this bill, the eligibility requirements for the child care subsidy that currently apply
to short-term kinship care relatives apply to long-term kinship care relatives.
Under current law, DWD distributes federal funds to child care providers and
counties for child care services that are provided to individuals who are eligible for
the W-2 child care subsidy and to private nonprofit agencies that provide child care
for children of migrant workers. Currently, the funds may not be used to cover the
costs of child care services that are provided to a child by a person who resides with
the child, unless a county determines that the child care is necessary because of a
special health condition of the child.
The bill permits DWD to reimburse a W-2 agency (an entity that administers
the W-2 program on behalf of DWD) for child care services that the W-2 agency
provides to W-2 participants and applicants and prohibits the use of the funds for
child care services that are provided for a child by the child's custodial parent,
guardian, foster parent, treatment foster parent, legal custodian, or person acting in
place of a parent, unless a county determines that the child care is necessary because
of a special health condition of the child.
Under current law, DWD contracts with W-2 agencies to administer the W-2
program. Current law requires that these two-year contracts require the W-2
agency to establish a community steering committee that consists of at least 12
members but not more than 15 members. A community steering committee is
responsible for advising W-2 agencies on employment and training activities,
creating and encouraging others to create subsidized jobs for W-2 participants,
identifying child care needs, improving child care access, and expanding the
availability of child care.
This bill eliminates the requirement that the community steering committee
consist of a specified number of members. The bill also requires that a W-2 contract
require the community steering committee to serve individuals who are receiving
services under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block
grant program and to coordinate its services with a local workforce development
board.
Public assistance
Current law directs DWD to allocate specific amounts of moneys in each fiscal
year, including federal moneys received under the TANF block grant program, for
various public assistance programs. This bill eliminates the allocation for some of
the programs, including start-up funding for W-2 contracts, the Passports for Youth
Program, the Community Marriage Policy Project, and payments to the Wisconsin
Trust Account Foundation for the provision of legal services to certain low-income
individuals.
Under the bill, if the amounts of TANF moneys that are received from the
federal government are less than the amounts of TANF moneys appropriated to
DWD, DWD must submit a plan to the secretary of administration for reducing the
amounts allocated for the public assistance programs. If the secretary approves the
plan, DWD may reduce the amounts allocated.
Current law requires DWD to distribute a portion of the federal Child Care
Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds to provide various child care services and
grant programs, including technical assistance to child care providers, grants for the
start-up and expansion of child day care services, and grants for improving the
quality of care standards. This bill requires DWD also to distribute CCDBG funds
as grants to local governments and tribal governing bodies for programs to improve
the quality of child care.
Under current law, DWD awards grants of up to $500 to eligible individuals for
the costs of tuition, books, transportation, or other direct costs of training or
education in a vocational or educational program. As a condition of eligibility for a
grant, an individual's income may not exceed 165% of the federal poverty line and
the individual must contribute matching funds equal to the amount of the grant. The
total amount of all grants awarded to an individual may not exceed $500. This bill
increases the maximum income level for eligibility for an employment skills
advancement grant to 185% of the federal poverty line, reduces the amount of
matching funds that an individual must contribute to 50% of the amount of the grant,
and increases the maximum amount of all grants that an individual may receive to
$1,000.
Under current law, DWD contracts with counties and W-2 agencies to
administer a work experience program for noncustodial parents, commonly referred
to as the Children First Program. Under the program, counties and W-2 agencies
provide work experience, job training, and job search assistance to noncustodial
parents (parents who do not live with their children for substantial periods) who are
required to participate in the program because they failed to pay court-ordered child
support or to meet their child's needs for support because of unemployment or
underemployment. Current law requires DWD to pay the county or W-2 agency
administering the program $400 for each noncustodial parent who participates in
the program.
This bill authorizes DWD to contract with elected tribal governing bodies of
federally recognized American Indian tribes or bands to administer the Children
First Program. The bill also changes the amount that DWD is required to pay to each
county, W-2 agency, or tribal governing body for each noncustodial parent who
participates in the program from $400 to an amount that is not more than $400.
Under current law, DHFS provides aid to eligible individuals to cover the costs
of medical care for kidney disease, cystic fibrosis, and hemophilia. An individual who
is eligible to receive aid, but whose income exceeds income limits established by
DHFS, is required to expend certain amounts of his or her income, determined
according to a sliding scale developed by DHFS, for the medical care before he or she
may receive aid. Every three years, DHFS is required to review and, if necessary,
revise the sliding scale to ensure that the needs of patients with lower incomes
receive priority for aid. This bill requires DHFS to revise the sliding scale as
necessary, rather than every three years, to ensure that the needs of patients with
lower incomes receive priority for aid.
Under current law, DHFS awards grants for the provision of alcohol and other
drug abuse treatment services in Milwaukee County to individuals who are eligible
for TANF and have family incomes that do not exceed 200% of the federal poverty
line. This bill permits these grants to be provided throughout the state.
Under current law, county departments of community programs (county
departments) are required, within the limits of federal, state, and county funds, to
provide to individuals who suffer from mental disabilities, including mental illness,
developmental disabilities, alcoholism, or drug abuse, a variety of health care
services related to mental illness, developmental disabilities, alcoholism, and drug
abuse. The health care services provided include diagnostic and evaluation services,
inpatient and outpatient care and treatment services, and supportive transitional
services. Under current law, if federal, state, and county funds for the alcohol and
other drug abuse services are not sufficient to meet the needs of all individuals who
are eligible for the services, the county departments must give first priority for the
services to any pregnant woman who suffers from alcoholism or alcohol abuse or who
is drug dependent.
Under this bill, county departments are required to give second priority for
alcohol and other drug abuse services to independent foster care adolescents. An
independent foster care adolescent is an individual who is at least 18 but under 21
years of age and was in foster care on his or her 18th birthday. If state, federal, and
county funds for mental health services are insufficient to meet the needs of all
individuals eligible for mental health services, the bill requires the county
departments to give first priority for the services to independent foster care
adolescents.
Children
Under current law, DHFS, DPI, and DWD administer various programs for
children. This bill creates a children's cabinet board consisting of the governor, the
state superintendent of public instruction, the secretary of administration, the
secretary of health and family services, and the secretary of workforce development,
that is attached to the office of the governor for administrative purposes. The bill
directs the board to make recommendations to the governor and the legislature
relating to changes needed in state programs, policies, and funding levels to improve
the coordination among state agencies of programs for children and to streamline the
delivery of those programs. The bill also directs the board to award grants to local
consortia (combinations of individuals, public agencies, nonprofit corporations,
for-profit organizations, federally recognized American Indian tribes or bands, or
other persons) to develop models for the delivery of programs for children who are
at risk of not being ready to learn when they enter kindergarten or who are at risk
of facing barriers to learning while in school (at-risk children). The models must be
designed to create closer links between school districts, human service providers,
and other community-based providers of programs for children; to enable at-risk
children to be ready to learn when they enter kindergarten or to overcome the
barriers to learning that they face while in school; to focus on providing services on
a voluntary basis to children under five years of age and their families, but also to
provide services to children and their families, as needed, throughout the elementary
and high school grades; and to meet certain performance measures prescribed by the
board.
Under current law, the juvenile court may designate an out-of-home
placement for a child who is within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. The state
receives federal foster care and adoption assistance funding under Title IV-E of the
federal Social Security Act (generally referred to as IV-E funds) in reimbursement
of moneys expended to provide care for children in out-of-home placements.
Recently, however, the federal government changed its regulations relating to
eligibility for IV-E funds to provide that IV-E funds are not available when a court
orders a child to be placed in a specific out-of-home placement, except that those
funds are available when a court orders a child to be placed in a specific out-of-home
placement recommended by the agency primarily responsible for providing services
for the child (agency) or when a court, after considering the evidence presented by
the agency and all parties relating to a child's placement, orders the child to be placed
in a specific out-of-home placement other than a placement recommended by the
agency.
This bill requires an order of the juvenile court placing a child outside the home
in a placement recommended by the agency to include a statement that the juvenile
court approves the placement recommended by the agency and an order of the
juvenile court placing a child outside the home in a placement other than a placement
recommended by the agency to include a statement that the juvenile court has given
bona fide consideration to the recommendations made by the agency and all parties
relating to the child's placement.
Under current law, the juvenile court may appoint a relative of a child as the
guardian of the child if the juvenile court makes certain findings, including a finding
that the child has been adjudged to be in need of protection or services and has been
placed outside of his or her home under an order of the juvenile court for one year or
longer. This bill permits any person, not just a relative, to be appointed as the
guardian of a child who has been adjudged to be in need of protection or services. The
bill also eliminates that one-year waiting period and permits a child who has been
adjudged to be in need of protection or services or whose parents' parental rights to
the child have been terminated to be placed directly in the home of a guardian
without first having been placed in another out-of-home placement.
Currently, a relative who is appointed as the guardian of a child in need of
protection or services and who meets certain other requirements is eligible to receive
long-term kinship care payments of $215 per month for providing care and
maintenance for the child. This bill permits a person who is appointed as the
guardian for a child in need of protection or service, who was the licensed foster or
treatment foster parent of the child before that appointment, and who is a resident
of Milwaukee County to receive monthly subsidized guardianship payments in an
amount established by DHFS based on the average amount of general purpose
revenues expended per child in foster care in Milwaukee County in state fiscal year
2000-01 if the child is 12 years of age or over and any of the following applies: 1) the
child has been placed outside of his or her home for 15 of the most recent 22 months;
2) the parental rights of the child's parents have been terminated; 3) the juvenile
court has found that reunification of the child with the child's parents is unlikely or
contrary to the best interests of the child and that further reunification efforts are
unlikely to be made or are contrary to the best interests of the child. The bill also
permits those payments to be made to such a guardian if the child does not meet any
of those conditions, but DHFS has determined that providing subsidized
guardianship payments to the guardian is in the best interests of the child and the
juvenile court has confirmed that determination. The bill also requires DHFS to
request from the federal department of health and human services a waiver of the
requirements under Title IV-E of the federal Social Security Act that would
authorize the state to receive IV-E funds for the costs of providing care for a child
who is in the care of a guardian who was licensed as the child's foster or treatment
foster parent before the guardianship appointment and to provide monthly
subsidized guardianship payments to the guardian according to the terms of the
waiver.
Under current law, for each child living in a foster home, treatment foster home,
group home, child caring institution, secure detention facility, or shelter care facility,
whether under a voluntary agreement or under an order of the juvenile court, the
agency that placed the child or arranged the placement of the child or the agency
assigned primary responsibility for providing services to the child under the juvenile
court order must prepare a written permanency plan, which is a plan designed to
ensure that a child is reunified with his or her family whenever appropriate or that
the child quickly attains a placement providing long-term stability. This bill
requires a permanency plan to be prepared for a child who, under a juvenile court
order, is living in the home of a relative.
Under current law, on the request of a grandparent in whose home a grandchild
whose parent is under 18 years of age is placed, whether under a voluntary
agreement or under a juvenile court order, DHFS, a county department of human
services or social services (county department), or a licensed child welfare agency
may license that grandparent as the grandchild's foster or treatment foster parent.
This bill requires, rather than authorizes, DHFS, a county department, or a licensed
child welfare agency to license such a grandparent as the grandchild's foster or
treatment foster parent on the request of the grandparent. Similarly, on the request
of a guardian in whose home a minor ward is placed under a juvenile court order,
DHFS, a county department, or a licensed child welfare agency may license that
guardian as the ward's foster or treatment foster parent. This bill requires, rather
than authorizes, DHFS, a county department, or a licensed child welfare agency to
license such a guardian as the ward's foster or treatment foster parent on the request
of the guardian.
Under current law, certain relatives of a child who provide care and
maintenance for the child and who meet certain other conditions (kinship care
relatives) are eligible for a payment of $215 per month under the Kinship Care
Program. Those conditions include a condition that the county department or, in
Milwaukee County, DHFS must conduct a background investigation of the kinship
care relative, any employee or prospective employee of the kinship care relative who
has or would have regular contact with the child, and any adult resident of the
kinship care relative's home and the investigation must indicate that the kinship
care relative, employee, prospective employee, or adult resident does not have any
arrests or convictions that could adversely affect the child or the kinship care
relative's ability to care for the child. Currently, a kinship care relative who is denied
kinship care payments, or who is prohibited from employing a person or permitting
a person to reside in the kinship care relative's home, based on an arrest or conviction
record may request the director of the county department or, in Milwaukee County,
a person designated by the secretary of health and family services to review that
denial. That review procedure expires on the effective date of the 2001-03 biennial
budget act. This bill eliminates that expiration date.
Under current law, if the parental rights of all living parents of a child are
terminated or if a child has no living parents, the juvenile court may transfer
guardianship of the child to DHFS, which is then responsible for securing the
adoption of the child. If a permanent adoptive placement is not in progress two years
after entry of the termination of parental rights (TPR) or guardianship order, DHFS
may petition the juvenile court to transfer legal custody of the child to a county
department, but DHFS remains the guardian of the child. This bill shortens that
time frame to one year after entry of the TPR or guardianship order. The bill also
authorizes DHFS to petition the juvenile court to transfer guardianship of such a
child to a county department that is authorized to accept guardianship of children.
Similarly, under current law, an American Indian tribal court in this state may
appoint DHFS as guardian or legal custodian of a child who has no parents, or whose
parents' parental rights to the child have been terminated by the tribal court, for the
purpose of making an adoptive placement for the child. If a permanent adoptive
placement is not in progress two years after entry of the TPR or guardianship order,
DHFS may petition the tribal court to transfer legal custody or guardianship of the
child back to the tribe. This bill shortens that time frame to one year after entry of
the TPR or guardianship order.
Under current law, a person 21 years of age or older whose birth parents'
parental rights have been terminated, or who has been adopted, in this state may
request DHFS to provide the person with a copy of the person's original birth
certificate and with the identity and location of the person's birth parents. If the
person's birth parent has not filed an affidavit authorizing DHFS to disclose the
person's original birth certificate or the identity and location of the birth parent,
DHFS or a county department or a child welfare agency under contract with DHFS
must conduct a search for the birth parent to inform the birth parent that he or she
may file an affidavit authorizing that disclosure. This bill eliminates the authority
of DHFS to conduct those searches or to contract with a county department or a child
welfare agency to conduct those searches. Instead, the bill permits DHFS to license
a child welfare agency to conduct those searches.
Under current law, DHFS, a county department, or a child welfare agency may
charge a reasonable fee for the cost of conducting a search for a person's birth
parents, but may not charge a fee in excess of $100 unless the person gives consent
to proceed with the search. Similarly, a person requesting access to medical and
genetic information about a person or the person's birth parents must pay a fee based
on ability to pay, but not to exceed $150, for the cost of locating, verifying, purging,
summarizing, copying, and mailing that information. This bill eliminates those fee
caps.
Current law requires DHFS to pay claims not payable by other insurance for
bodily injury or property damage sustained by a foster, treatment foster, or
family-operated group home parent (parent) or a member of the parent's family as
a result of an act of a child placed in the parent's care. Current law also permits
DHFS to pay claims not covered by other insurance for acts or omissions of a parent
that result in bodily injury to a child placed in the parent's care or that form the basis
for a civil action for damages against the parent, and for bodily injury or property
damage that is caused by an act or omission of a child who is placed in the parent's
care and for which the parent becomes legally liable. Currently, the amount of those
claims that DHFS may approve in a fiscal year is subject to a $200 deductible. This
bill lowers that deductible amount to $100.
Under current law, DHFS distributes IV-E funds as community aids to
counties to provide social services to children and families. If on December 31 of any
year there remains unspent or unencumbered in the community aids basic county
allocation an amount that exceeds the amount of IV-E funds allocated as community
aids in that year (excess IV-E funds), DHFS must carry forward to the next year
those excess IV-E funds and distribute not less than 50% of those excess IV-E funds
to counties other than Milwaukee County that are making a good faith effort to
implement the statewide automated child welfare information system (generally
referred to as "WISACWIS") for services and projects to assist children and families.
Currently, a county is required to use not less than 50% of the excess IV-E funds
distributed to that county for services and projects to assist children and families.
This bill permits a county, in the year in which the county implements WISACWIS
and in the two succeeding years, to use 100% of the excess IV-E funds distributed
to that county to reimburse DHFS for the costs of implementing WISACWIS.
Under current law, the child abuse and neglect prevention board (CANPB) may
expend the interest earned on, but not the principal of, moneys received from the sale
of "Celebrate Children" license plates to award grants for child abuse and neglect
prevention programs, early childhood family education centers, and Right From the
Start projects; to administer statewide child abuse and neglect prevention projects;
and to pay for the operating costs of CANPB. This bill permits CANPB to expend 50%
of the moneys received from the sale of those license plates, and all interest earned
on those moneys received, to award the grants, administer the projects, and pay for
its operating costs.
Family care
Under family care, a program of financial assistance in providing long-term
care and support items, persons are entitled to (will receive) a benefit if they are at
least 18 years of age, have physical disabilities or infirmities of aging, meet financial
criteria, and fulfill any applicable cost-sharing requirements. They must also meet
any of several criteria related to functionality, eligibility for MA, the need for
protective services or protective placement, and the existence of chronic or terminal
conditions. Other persons may be eligible for, but are not necessarily entitled to, the
family care benefit if they are at least 18 years of age, have physical disabilities or
infirmities of aging, meet financial criteria, fulfill any applicable cost-sharing
requirements, and meet any of several criteria relating to functionality. DHFS is
authorized to determine the date on which these functionality criteria first apply to
applicants for the family care benefit who are not MA recipients, but the date may
not be later than July 1, 2000. Persons with developmental disabilities in a county
in which family care initially was provided before July 1, 2001, are both eligible and
entitled. One of the criteria for functionality for both entitled and eligible persons
is that the person have a condition that is expected to last at least 90 days or result
in death within 12 months after the date of application and, on the date that the
family care benefit became available in the person's county of residence, the person
was a nursing home resident or had been receiving care under long-term MA, the
Alzheimer's Family Caregiver Support Program, community aids, or county funding.
This bill applies the family care functionality criterion that relates to a chronic
or terminal condition to eligible persons who do not meet other functionality criteria.
The bill requires that a person seeking a determination of functional eligibility under
the criterion first apply for eligibility for the family care benefit within 36 months
after the date on which the family care benefit is initially available in the person's
county of residence. Further, for persons who are entitled to the family care benefit,
the bill creates a criterion that is similar but under which a person qualifies only if
he or she does meet another specific functionality criterion. The bill changes
provisions concerning persons with developmental disability, so that a person who
is 18 years of age, has a primary disabling condition of developmental disability, and
meets financial and functionality criteria is both eligible for and entitled to the
family care benefit if the person is a resident of a county in which family care was
initially provided before July 1, 2003.
The bill changes the latest date that DHFS may determine for beginning to
apply functionality criteria under the Family Care Program to family care benefit
applicants who are not MA recipients. Under the bill, the date must be not later than
January 1, 2004, but, before the determined date, persons who are not eligible for MA
may receive the family care benefit within the limits of state funds appropriated for
this purpose and available federal funds.
Currently, DHFS may contract with various entities to operate family care
resource centers, which provide, among other things, determinations of family care
eligibility and information and referral services. If the secretary of health and family
services certifies that a family care resource center is available in a county, adult
family homes, residential care apartment complexes, C-BRFs, and nursing homes
in the county must, unless certain exceptions apply, refer persons who are at least
65 years of age who or have physical disabilities that are expected to last at least 90
days to the resource center for services and determinations of family care and other
program eligibility. In addition, nursing homes must so refer persons with
developmental disability.
Currently, a family care resource center in a county must, within six months
after the family care benefit is available to all eligible persons in the resource center's
area, provide information about the family care benefit and family care services to
all older persons and persons with physical disabilities who reside in facilities in the
area, must provide a functional and financial screening to those residents and to
certain persons who are seeking admission to a facility, and must provide access for
eligible persons to protective services or protective placement or elder abuse services.
This bill requires that DHFS ensure that family care benefit and family care
services information, functional and financial screenings, and access for eligible
persons to protective services or protective placement and elder abuse services are
provided, rather than requiring that a family care resource center provide these.
Also, under the bill, persons who are residents of certain facilities and are members
of a target population served by a care management organization in the county must
receive this information.
Currently, DHFS must promulgate rules requiring a hospital to refer to a
family care resource center patients being discharged from the hospital who have
developmental disability or a physical disability requiring long-term care for at least
90 days, or who are 65 years of age or older. The rules must specify that the
requirement applies only if the secretary of health and family services has certified
that a resource center is available for the hospital and for individuals that include
the hospital's patients.
This bill eliminates the requirement that DHFS promulgate rules requiring a
hospital to refer patients to a resource center. Instead, the bill requires that a
resource center annually develop and provide to the local long-term care council for
review a tentative plan for coordinating appropriate referrals of individuals who are
discharged from hospitals in the area served by the resource center and who are
likely to be eligible for family care benefits. The local long-term care council must
review the tentative plan and provide to the resource center nonbinding plan
recommendations for ensuring cooperation and coordination between the resource
center and hospital. In turn, the resource center must consider the
recommendations and cooperate with hospitals in the geographic area served by the
resource center in developing and implementing the plan. Hospitals must
participate in the plan development and implementation if the secretary of health
and family services has certified that a resource center is available for the hospital
and for individuals that include the hospital's patients.
The bill clarifies that adult family homes, residential care apartment
complexes, and C-BRFs must refer persons with developmental disability to family
care resource centers for services and determinations of family care and other
program eligibility.
Currently, a county board of supervisors or, in a county with a county executive
or county administrator, that person, may create a family care district (a special
purpose district that is organized to operate a family care resource center or a care
management organization, but not both). The county board of supervisors or county
executive or county administrator also appoints the 15 members of the family care
district board, which is the governing body for the family care district. If a county
joins with one or more counties, the county board of supervisors of each county may
create a family care district, with a 21-member board. The lengths of terms of the
initial members of the family care district board are specified. Up to one-fourth of
the members may be elected or appointed officials or employees of the county. Also,
in each county that participates in family care, the county board must appoint a local
long-term care council, which develops the initial county plan for the structure of the
Family Care Program in that county.
This bill permits a county board of supervisors or a county executive or county
administrator to appoint only the initial members of a family care district board, and
requires that both the proposed creation of a family care district and the proposed
appointments to the family care district board be first reviewed and approved by the
secretary of health and family services. This limitation also applies to the county
boards of supervisors that join in creating a family care district. The local long-term
care council must also review the proposed initial members of the family care district
board and recommend to that secretary approval or disapproval of the proposed
membership. The bill authorizes members of the family care district board, once
initially appointed, to appoint successors to the board. The bill decreases the length
of the terms of the initial members and limits to less than one-fourth of the
membership the number of family care district board members who may be elected
or appointed county officials or county employees.
Under current law, after the secretary of health and family services has
certified that a family care resource center is available to provide family care services
in a county, C-BRFs and residential care apartment complexes in that county must
provide prospective residents with information about the family care benefit and
services of the resource center and must refer certain persons to a resource center.
In addition, C-BRFs must inform all prospective residents of the assessment
requirements for the receipt of COP services and services under CIP II for persons
who are relocated from certain institutions or who meet level-of-care requirements
for MA.
This bill requires that, beginning on January 1, 2002, except in a county in
which a resource center is available to provide family care services, a residential care
apartment complex inform prospective residents of the services of the county aging
unit, of the agency in the county that administers COP, and of conditions for
eligibility for public funding for long-term care services. Also, except in such a
county, a C-BRF must refer persons seeking admission to the C-BRF to the agency
in the county that administers COP. The bill authorizes COP funding to be used for
conducting preadmission consultations for persons seeking admission or about to be
admitted to a C-BRF.
Under current law, the benefit under family care is funded from a number of
sources, including federal and state moneys for those who are eligible for MA.
Moneys that are received from the recovery of family care correctly paid benefit
payments (commonly referred to as "estate recovery") are appropriated, in part, as
payments to care management organizations to provide the family care benefit.
This bill appropriates moneys that are received as estate recovery from family
care enrollees who are ineligible for MA to pay for administering the estate recovery
and to pay care management organizations to provide the family care benefit. With
respect to moneys that are received as estate recovery from family care enrollees who
are eligible for MA, the bill appropriates those moneys as part of the state share of
MA that is provided as the family care benefit.
Under family care, a client may contest specified matters, including estate
recovery and incorrectly paid benefit payments, by filing a written request for a
hearing with the division of hearings and appeals in DOA. The client must file the
request within 45 days of receiving notice of a decision in a contested matter or within
45 days of the failure by a resource center or care management organization under
family care to act on the matter under time frames specified by DHFS. DHFS also
must promulgate rules relating to estate recovery and the recovery of incorrectly
paid family care benefits that are substantially similar to MA recovery provisions.
This bill changes the time by which a family care client may contest certain
actions under family care to be within 45 days after the effective date of the action.
Further, the bill eliminates recovery of family care benefit payments as a matter that
may be contested within this time limitation.
