Proposed Regulations Establish Advanced Home Health Aides and Require New Entities to Comply with Criminal History Record Checks and Home Care Worker Registry
Proposed regulations were published in the State Register last week to flesh out the new role of the Advanced Home Health Aide (AHHA). The regulations add the new role to regulations governing Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs), Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs), Hospice, and Enriched Assisted Living Residences (EALRs) and establish the protocol for supervision of AHHAs by registered nurses. Direct supervision of AHHAs will include providing training, guidance, direction, oversight, and evaluation of the aide, as well as assigning tasks; assessing the patient; case-specific training; written instructions, including a protocol for complications; medication review; determining level of supervision; phone accessibility; home supervisory visits; and more. Patients may refuse to consent to advanced tasks by the AHHA if they wish. AHHAs will also be required to fulfill 18 hours of in-service education per year. Regulations relating to actual AHHA tasks and educational requirements are still being developed by the State Education Department. It is likely those regulations will be published soon.
The regulations also require Criminal History Record Checks (CHRCs) for Adult Homes, Enriched Housing, Adult Residences, and Hospice and add unlicensed persons who provide face-to-face care or have physical access to resident living quarters to the definition of “employee in direct care or supervision.” They also require supervision and documentation of temporary employees and authorize reimbursement for providers doing the record checks.
AHHAs are added to the Home Care Worker Registry. Hospice and EALRs are added to the list of entities subject to the Home Care Registry as well.
The text of the proposed regulations is here. Comments are due by July 29th to regsqna@health.ny.gov or:
Katherine Ceroalo
New York State Department of Health
Bureau of Program Counsel, Regulatory Affairs Unit
Corning Tower Building, Room 2438
Empire State Plaza
Albany, NY 12237
LeadingAge NY will be submitting comments, and your feedback, questions, and concerns would be greatly appreciated.
Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871