Pennsylvania Medicaid Home & Community Based Services (HCBS) Rates have been updated and take effect January 1, 2025.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro recently signed two bills aimed at improving home care and hospice services. House Bill 155 allows healthcare providers, including home care agencies, to use remote video technology for interviewing direct care workers, streamlining the recruitment process. Senate Bill 1080 enables licensed practical nurses (LPNs) to pronounce death in home hospice settings, enhancing end-of-life care. These changes are expected to improve recruitment efforts and increase efficiency in delivering care, which is especially important as demand for home-based services grows. 

The Pennsylvania Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) is re-opening the Calendar Year 2023 Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) rate study survey to allow additional responses from providers who were unable to participate earlier. This includes personal assistance agencies (PAS).

The Pennsylvania Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has engaged Mercer Government Human Services Consulting to conduct a rate study survey for several Home and Community-Based Services, including personal assistance services. All providers in Pennsylvania are asked to complete the survey by next Friday, August 23, for calendar year 2023. The information collected in this survey will be used to assist in developing a point of reference for the rate range to evaluate current payment rates. In addition to results from this survey, the review will include payment rate information from Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) in OLTL claims data, recent legislative policies, department expectations, and other data obtained from publicly available sources.

Last month, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the Fair Contracting for Health Care Practitioners Act (HB 1633), which bans certain noncompete covenants, including patient nonsolicitation provisions, between an employer and health care practitioner if the covenant is more than one year or the health care practitioner was “dismissed by the employer.” The effective date of the Act is January 1, 2025, according to HCAOA Associate Member Littler.

​On Friday, the Pennsylvania Department of Health confirmed that non-medical homecare agencies are approved providers for the purpose of CNA recertifications. However, this was not the case two months ago when Credentia, the vendor for the department, had removed home care agencies as approved providers. Now that the issue has been resolved, CNAs who work for home care agencies and were unable to renew their license will be notified by Credentia in the coming weeks.

​On March 3, 2022, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s City Council adopted and sent to the mayor (who we expect to sign) Bill # 220051-A, an ordinance requiring covered employers to provide paid “COVID-19 Leave” starting immediately (when the law officially takes effect upon signature by the mayor) and through December 31, 2023 (though the city council discussed the possibility of later amending the ordinance to expire sooner should the COVID-19 situation improve). To employers that had to comply with Philadelphia’s 2021 COVID-19 paid leave law, the ordinance will look very familiar. A few provisions, however, are slightly different, most notably the amount of leave employers must provide.