Significant and Costly Training Requirements Proposed for Connecticut Home Care Agencies

The Connecticut legislature's Aging Committee introduced a bill that would make significant changes to training requirements for home care agency (HCA) employees, which could be costly to implement.

​Senate Bill 1344 requires the Commissioner of Consumer Protection to develop a list of approved training programs for caregivers; requires HCAs to provide ten paid hours of initial training to new employees and ten paid hours of continuing education to current employees; and increases the registration fee for HCAs from $375 to $450.
 
The bill is purportedly designed to implement the training recommendations from the Office of Policy and Management’s report proposing a plan to transfer responsibility for registration and oversight of HCAs from the Department of Consumer Protection to the Department of Public Health.
 
The HCAOA Connecticut Chapter has significant concerns with the bill and many comments and questions about it, which it plans to convey to the committee in a public hearing scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28. The Chapter urges members to testify or submit written remarks to the committee and contact their lawmakers about the bill.