Fortress.wa.gov
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
H17-052 – Information
June 27, 2017/July 24, 2017
AMENDED November 01, 2017
|TO: |Area Agency on Aging (AAA) Directors |
| | |
| |Home and Community Services (HCS) Division Regional Administrators |
| | |
| |Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) Regional Administrators |
|FROM: |Bea Rector, Director, Home and Community Services Division |
| | |
| |Don Clintsman, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Developmental Disabilities Administration |
| | |
| |Chanh Ly, Director, Management Services Division |
|SUBJECT: |Rate Changes for Homecare Agency Vendor Rate, Training Class Time, and Family Caregiver Support Program (FCSP) Respite |
| |AND New Billing Forms for Agency Worker Class Time Training, Agency Worker Health Insurance (AWHI) and Training Tuition |
| |for Respite and Non-Core Service Hours |
|Purpose: |The purpose of this November Amendment is notification that there is a change carried to the January rate change that |
| |will increase future rate levels during the biennium. The current rate is not changing, so there is no need for |
| |rebilling. |
| | |
| |There were originally four purposes in issuing this Management Bulletin (MB): |
| |Notification that the vendor rate for contracted homecare agencies will change from $6.49 to $6.67 per quarter hour |
| |effective for service hours beginning July 1, 2017 as a result of Legislature recently funding the new Collective |
| |Bargaining Agreement for IPs and Agency Parity. ProviderOne will reflect the new Homecare Agency Vendor rate change |
| |effective July 1, 2017. If a claim was submitted prior to the July update then the agency needed to adjust their claim. |
| | |
| |Notification that the agency class time training hourly rate will increase to $16.12. |
| |Notification that the Respite rate paid to contracted homecare agencies uses the same increased Homecare Agency Vendor |
| |Rate. The rates for AWHI and training tuition billed separately for Respite and Non-Core service hours are also changing.|
| |Notification of new billing (BARS) forms for: AAA homecare agency caregiver training class time and for AWHI and |
| |caregiver training tuition for respite and non-core service hours. |
|Background: |RCW 74.39A.310 requires that the Department create a formula that converts the cost of the increase in wages and benefits|
| |negotiated and funded in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for Individual Providers (IPs) into a per-hour amount.|
| |That per-hour amount shall be added to the statewide homecare agency vendor rate and shall be used exclusively for |
| |improving the wages and benefits of homecare agency workers who provide direct care. The formula also accounts for |
| |non-billable hours, such as travel time of direct service workers under the wage and hour laws and worker’s compensation |
| |increases. The published homecare agency vendor quarter hour rate is changing based on the negotiated and funded IP |
| |2017-2019 CBA. All funded CBA increases in total are reflected in the new home care agency vendor rates. |
|What’s new, |Effective July 1st, 2017, the vendor rate for all contracted homecare agencies will increase from $25.96 per hour to |
|changed, or |$26.68 per hour. This is based on the published quarter hour rate of $6.49 changing to $6.67 per quarter hour. |
|Clarified: |Total Homecare Agency Rate Increase for July 1, 2017: $.72 /hr |
| |Bargained articles which have changes are as follows: |
| |Base Wages |
| |Paid Time Off |
| |Pay differentials for Certification and Advance Training completion |
| |Comprehensive Health Benefit |
| |Training tuition for Basic, CE, and Advanced Home Care Aide |
| |Basic & CE training wages and tuition for exempt workers |
| |Retirement |
| |Referral Registry |
| |Admin time for completing timesheets (30 mins per month) |
| | |
| |Administrative increase 2% Targeted Vendor Rate increase and minimum wage impact (total $0.108). Detailed biennial |
| |breakdown is attached. |
| | |
| |With the exception of the $0.108 administrative increase, the Collective Bargaining Agreement increase above must be |
| |applied to caregiver compensation (wages & benefits). How the increase is distributed is up to the individual homecare |
| |agency, but must average across all direct homecare workers and be related directly to compensation, and may include |
| |employer taxes. |
| | |
| |This November MB amendment removes the $.08 offset from the non-billable base that had been attributed to receiving the |
| |Admin Time for timesheets. It also corrects an overpayment of $.03 for AHCAS training tuition that expired June 30, |
| |2017. These corrections have been made by moving the correction (additional $.05 of pre-rounded hourly rate) to the |
| |January 2018 vendor rate change. This is to avoid the administratively burdensome rebilling process. The result is that|
| |there is no current change to the rate in place for July 1, 2017 through Dec. 31, 2017, but the extra $0.05 will be an |
| |additional increase in January 2018 over what was previously estimated. |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| |There will be vendor rate increases related to the collectively bargained increase in wages/benefits every six months for|
| |this biennium. It is anticipated the rate will increase each January and July. The future rate changes below may be |
| |impacted by changes to L&I rates and IRS mileage rates and are subject to change, but listed here for planning purposes. |
| | |
| | |
| |Effective Date ( |
| |Jan. 1, 2018 |
| |July 1, 2018 |
| |Jan. 1, 2019 |
| | |
| |Estimated Hourly Rate |
| |$27.12 |
| |$27.84 |
| |$28.96 |
| | |
| |Quarter Hour Rate |
| |$6.78 |
| |$6.96 |
| |$7.24 |
| | |
| | |
| |Training Class Time Wages |
| |The agency class time hourly rate will increase from $14.43 to $16.12 effective July 1, 2017. The training wage is tied |
| |to the hourly base wage of Individual Providers plus paid time off and the tax rate determined by the CBA and will also |
| |change every six months. This continues to be billed through AAAs by A-19 for Safety & Orientation, Basic Training, and |
| |CE. |
| | |
| |The Respite rate for homecare agencies uses the same Homecare Agency Vendor Rate described above. AAAs bill Agency |
| |Worker Health Insurance (AWHI) and Training Tuition to ALTSA separately so they don’t impact Family Caregiver Support |
| |Program budgets. The new AWHI rate is $3.41 per hour and Training Tuition is $.40 per hour. The Respite Base Rate |
| |increases to $22.87. |
|ACTION: |ProviderOne will update rates to ensure the increased Homecare Agency Vendor Rate is paid for service hours beginning in |
| |July 2017 on all valid authorizations. If claims for July have been completed prior to the update in ProviderOne, the |
| |agency will need to adjust the claim. There is no change to this rate due to the November amendment of this MB. |
| | |
| |DDA clients receiving respite services through vendors contracted with DDA to provide Agency Respite use the same Home |
| |Care Agency Vendor Rate described above. |
| | |
| |AAAs/DDA will begin paying homecare agency respite providers using the new rate of $6.67 per quarter hour (or $26.68 per |
| |hour) effective with July services. |
| | |
| |AAAs must begin using the updated attached BARS forms for Caregiver Class Time Training, and for Agency Worker Health |
| |Insurance, Caregiver Training Tuition for FCSP Respite and Non-Core Personal Services effective with July 2017 billings. |
|Related |RCW 74.39A.310 |
|REFERENCES: | |
| | |
| | |
|ATTACHMENT(S): |Home Care Agency Training Wage Detail for 7/1/17 |
| |[pic] |
| | |
| | |
| |Biennial Breakdown of Agency Parity |
| |[pic] |
| | |
| |BARS AWHI and CGT Tuition for Respite and Non-Core Personal Services SFY18: |
| |[pic] |
| | |
| |BARS for Caregiver Training Class Time SFY18: |
| |[pic] |
|CONTACT(S): |Paula Renz, Program Manager |
| |State Unit on Aging |
| |(360) 725-2560 |
| |Paula.Renz@dshs. |
| | |
| |Jaime Bond, State Plan Services Unit Manager, |
| |Developmental Disabilities Administration |
| |(360)407-1567 |
| |Jaime.Bond@dshs. |
| | |
| |For fiscal questions, contact: |
| |Anna Glaas, Grants Unit Supervisor |
| |(360) 725-2374 |
| |Anna.Glaas@dshs. |
| | |
| |For AAA Respite questions, contact: |
| |Dana Allard-Webb, Program Manager, |
| |State Unit on Aging |
| |(360) 725-2552 |
| |allarDR@dshs. |
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