AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE ADULT DAY HEALTH PROGRAM.
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to assess forthwith the needs of the state adult day health program, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
(a) The executive office of health and human services shall conduct a study of the feasibility and potential cost savings of implementing a moratorium on the acceptance and approval of applications for enrollment of new adult day health providers and expansion of the certified capacity of already approved adult day health providers as provided in 130 C.M.R. 404.400 et seq. This moratorium shall not apply to a PACE program as defined in 42 U.S.C. section 1396u–4(a)(2).
The executive office shall continue to develop regulations that include statewide requirements for the licensure of adult day health programs and shall, after a public hearing, promulgate said regulations.
(b) There shall be established an adult day services working group, hereinafter called the working group, to study and make recommendations on the present structure of adult day services. The working group shall consist of 9 members, 1 of whom shall be the secretary of health and human services, or a designee, who shall serve as chair; 1 of whom shall be the secretary of elder affairs, or a designee, 1 of whom shall be the director of the office of Medicaid, or a designee, 2 of whom shall be the chairs of the joint committee on elder affairs, 2 of whom shall be the chairs of the joint committee on health care financing, and 2 of whom shall be appointed by the governor, and 1 of whom shall be from the Massachusetts Adult Day Services Association. The working group shall complete a study that includes recommendations to (1) update the basis for the current adult day health rate structure by developing a model for imputing actual costs into the rate structure and stabilizing the overall financing structure of adult day services; (2) assess the current manner of categorizing clients as basic or complex; and (3) project the commonwealth’s current and future adult day health services needs so as to be able to recommend changes that these needs require. The working group shall report the results of its study and any recommendations to the house and senate committees on ways and means on or before December 31, 2011.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law or regulation to the contrary, the division of medical assistance and the division of health care finance and policy shall make no changes in the clinical eligibility or level of reimbursement paid to providers of adult day health services for basic and complex levels of care prior to December 31, 2011.
Approved, August 3, 2011.