HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 2882        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 1869

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act relative to quality care services fund..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. For a reserve to adjust the wages, compensation or salary and associated employee-related costs to non-managerial personnel who are employed by private human service providers that deliver human and social services under contracts with departments within the executive office of health and human services or the executive office of elder affairs, private human services providers who deliver non-residential mental health and developmental disability services and receive non-contractual payments through the State Medicaid program, or private human service providers that deliver human and social services under contracts with managed care mental health organizations under the MassHealth program; provided, that the secretary of administration and finance may allocate the funds appropriated in this item to the departments in order to implement this initiative; provided further, that the executive office of health and human services and the executive office of elder affairs shall condition the expenditure of the reserve upon assurances that, to be eligible to receive payments from the reserve, a provider must have a legally binding written commitment with its employees or their representative to adjust wages and other compensation for employees who complete training/education programs to improve the quality of care they deliver, in the amounts provided by the reserve, and a mechanism available to eligible employees to enforce the adjustments that is expeditious, low-cost, and utilizes a neutral decision-maker,  and must have provided notice of the commitments and the enforcement mechanism to all its employees; provided further, that no funds from this item shall be allocated to contracts for early education and care services; provided further, that no funds shall be allocated from this item to contracts funded exclusively by federal grants; provided further, that the total fiscal year 2008 cost of salary adjustments and any other associated employee costs authorized hereunder shall not exceed $20,000,000; provided further, that the executive office shall submit an allocation schedule to the house and senate committees on ways and means not less than 30 days after disbursement of funds; provided further, that the annualized cost of the adjustments in fiscal year 2009 shall not exceed the amount appropriated herein; and provided further that the raises provided through this item shall not exceed $2 per hour per employee.