H.P. 1602 - L.D. 2228
An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Task Force on Registration of In-home Personal Care and Support Workers
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §1717 is enacted to read:
§1717. Registration of personal care agencies
1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
A. "Activities of daily living" means tasks that are routinely performed by an individual to maintain bodily function, including, but not limited to, mobility; transfers in position among sitting, standing and prone positions; dressing; eating; toileting; bathing; and personal hygiene assistance.
B. "Hires and employs" means recruits, selects, trains, declares competent, schedules, directs, defines the scope of the positions of, supervises or terminates individuals who provide personal care.
C. "Personal care agency" means a business entity or subsidiary of a business entity that is not otherwise licensed by the Division of Licensing and Certification and that hires and employs unlicensed assistive personnel to provide assistance with activities of daily living to individuals in the places in which they reside, either permanently or temporarily. An individual who hires and employs unlicensed assistive personnel to provide care for that individual is not a personal care agency.
D. "Unlicensed assistive personnel" means individuals employed to provide hands-on assistance with activities of daily living to individuals in homes, assisted living centers, residential care facilities, hospitals and other health care settings. Unlicensed assistive personnel does not include certified nursing assistants employed in their capacity as certified nursing assistants.
2. Registration of personal care agencies. Beginning August 1, 1998, a personal care agency not otherwise licensed by the department shall register with the department. The annual registration fee is $25.
3. Prohibited contracting and employment. A personal care agency may not hire under a long-term contract or employ permanently as unlicensed assistive personnel an individual who has worked as a certified nursing assistant and has been the subject of an annotation by the state survey agency for a substantiated complaint or conviction of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of funds in a health care setting.
4. Penalty. A person who operates a personal care agency without registering with the department commits a civil violation for which a forfeiture may be adjudged of $500 per day of operations.
Sec. 2. Report required. The Commissioner of Human Services shall report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health and human services matters on or before January 1, 1999 on the feasibility of establishing a statewide system for checking the criminal histories of unlicensed assistive personnel and a registry for maintaining records of criminal convictions and substantiated complaints of abuse, neglect or misappropriation of funds in a health care setting by the year 2000. The following characteristics must be considered: the system for checking for criminal convictions should be nationwide; the registry should be
statewide; the cost should be reasonable; there should be a single point of access for the public; funding must be provided by the Department of Human Services and the State Bureau of Identification within the Department of Public Safety; and the Department of Human Services shall adopt rules regarding the system and the registry.
Effective June 30, 1998, unless otherwise indicated.
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