Glossary

Page updated: 4/8/25

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | I | N | P | S | T | U

A

Activity of daily living (ADLs): Activities a person typically needs to do daily to remain healthy and safe in the community. In CFSS, the ADLs are dressing, grooming, bathing, eating, transfers, mobility, positioning and toileting.

Administrative functions: Functions that are not billable as a direct service but are necessary for the overall operation of the organization.

Examples of administrative functions include:

1. Executive management.

2. Finance and accounting.

3. Human resources.

4. Information technology (IT).

5. Expenses associated with the above functions, which can include:

· Wages and benefits paid to staff members who perform these duties.

· Associated office space.

· Office supplies and equipment.

· Utilities.

Agency model: CFSS service model in which the person receives service units and selects a CFSS provider agency that serves as their direct care workers’ employer. The provider agency is responsible for all employment-related tasks, including cost report completion.

Annual costs: Provider organization’s total costs for the entire year. The reporting year must include 12 full months of business costs. For most organizations, this period is the most recently completed fiscal year, whether that be from January through December of the previous calendar year or another definition of a fiscal year.

Annual recipients: Total number of people served by a CFSS provider agency for a given cost reporting year.
Note: If a person receives two different services from the same organization (e.g., continuation of benefits and CFSS), the reporting organization should only count this as one person on their cost report since the same person receives both services.

Authorized agent: A person who is the “controlling individual” or the owner of a program or licensed service provider. The authorized agent is the first person to sign in to the online cost reporting system. They can create provider user accounts for other staff members, and they are responsible to submit the cost report when it is finished. Their administrative sign-in or username has “admin.” in front of the email address.
Note: During the 2025 cost reporting cycle, some authorized agents do not have the “admin.” prefix in their usernames. This naming convention does not impact their ability to access or use the system. For more information, refer to authorized agents and provider users.

B

Benefit: Payments or gifts of monetary value; employer share of payroll taxes; employer share of health, dental, vision, life, disability or long- or short-term care insurance; employer contribution to retirement accounts; paid leave and/or tuition reimbursement.

Budget model: CFSS service model in which the person has a budget and is the employer of their workers, if they have any. The person is responsible for all employment-related tasks. They choose a financial management services (FMS) provider to support them with administrative tasks and the purchase of goods and services, if applicable. A person who uses the CFSS budget model does not need to submit a cost report because they are responsible for the employment tasks.

C

Client program and support costs: Costs the provider incurs for people to access community services, including:

· Supplies and equipment.

· Participation costs for staff to help people access community activities.

· Items for reinforcement that are defined in the person’s support plan.

Community First Services and Supports (CFSS): A Minnesota Health Care Program that offers flexible options to meet the unique needs of people. CFSS allows people greater independence in their homes and communities. CFSS will replace personal care assistance (PCA) and the Consumer Support Grant (CSG).

Cost category: A grouping of similar activities that share substantially similar characteristics to which a provider organization can attribute revenues and costs using a reasonable allocation methodology.

Consultation services provider: A provider who educates the person about CFSS and their options, helps them write their service delivery plan if desired, reviews the service delivery plan and provides ongoing support as needed. Consultation services providers do not need to submit cost reports.

D

Direct care activities: Activities that are connected both to a particular service as a billable activity and to a specific person for the corresponding CFSS service. Billable services for a CFSS direct care worker are:

· ADLs.

· IADLs.

· Observation and redirection of behaviors.

· Assistance with health-related procedures and delegated tasks.

Direct care staff compensation: All wages and benefits allocated toward an employee (e.g., direct care staff, administrative staff, supervisors) providing direct care activities.

Direct care supervisor: Refer to supervising professional.

Direct care worker (also known as a personal care worker): An employee whose primary responsibilities (i.e., more than 50% of the role) are to provide support and personal assistance to people with disabilities. A personal care worker is a specific type of direct care worker who primarily performs PCA/CFSS services.

E

Employer: An entity responsible to recruit, hire, train, supervise, ensure competence and fire workers. In the CFSS agency model, the provider agency is the employer. In the CFSS budget model, the person who receives services is the employer.

F

Financial management services (FMS) provider: A provider hired by a person who uses the CFSS budget model or a person who uses the CFSS agency model who purchases goods and services. FMS providers do not need to submit cost reports because they do not control spending.

Full-time equivalent (FTE): A measure of the workload of one full-time position that a provider organization can allocate to one person or to multiple people. For example, if a position is 0.5 FTE, a person in that position does half the annual work of a person in a full-time position. If a provider organization has two 0.5 FTE positions with the same title, the organization can report one 1.0 FTE position.

G

Goods and services: Items or services purchased through CFSS that either:

· Increase a person’s independence.

· Decrease a person’s need for assistance from another person.

A person uses some of their units (CFSS agency model) or dollars (CFSS budget model) to purchase the goods/services. Because the person’s FMS provider helps them purchase goods and services, the cost report preparer does not include the cost of goods and services in an agency’s cost report.

I

Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs): Activities related to living independently in the community, such as transportation, meal planning and preparation, shopping for essential items and managing finances.

N

National Provider Identifier (NPI): A standard national unique identifier used to submit and process waiver health care claims and other transactions.

P

PCA: A Minnesota Health Care Program replaced by CFSS. For additional information, refer to CFSS.

Personal care worker: Refer to direct care worker.

Program support: Time and activities that are not direct care activities but are related to providing direct care. Program support includes but is not limited to:

· Documentation.

· Service preparation activities.

· Sharing information between shifts to other staff members.

· Supervision.

Provider user: A contact created by the authorized agent in the online cost reporting system. Provider users are responsible to enter and save the necessary information in their organization’s cost report by following the instructions in this manual. Provider users may review, create, update and delete information in the cost report. They cannot submit the final cost report to DHS; the organization’s authorized agent must submit the cost report. The provider user’s username is an email address.

S

Supervising professional (also known as direct care supervisor): An employee of a CFSS provider agency who is responsible to supervise direct care workers and manage programs. In CFSS cost reporting, a cost report preparer categorizes a CFSS provider agency employee as a supervising professional if their primary responsibility (i.e., more than 50% of the role) is to supervise direct care workers and manage programs. The supervising professional trains the direct care workers, confirms they are competent to perform the tasks the person needs and provides ongoing supervision. A direct care supervisor may or may not be licensed, depending on needs of the person whose workers they supervise.

Support staff: Personnel employed during the reporting period as full-time, part-time, contract or temporary staff whose primary job responsibilities do not include administrative or billable direct service functions. Support staff includes but is not limited to:

· Building maintenance personnel.

· IT support personnel.

· Janitorial personnel.

· Security personnel.

T

Transportation: Vehicular trips or public transportation taken by direct care staff as part of service delivery. Transportation costs include non-staffing costs incurred by the agency for:

· In-program mileage: Vehicular trips taken by direct care staff as part of program service delivery for a person over the age of 18 (e.g., a direct care staff member accompanies or drives the person into the community or shops for the person).

· Public transportation: Direct care staff may access public transportation as part of the provision of services (e.g., a direct care staff member accompanies a person receiving services on a public train into the community).

· Out-of-program mileage: Vehicular trips taken by direct care staff when not part of program service delivery (e.g., a direct care staff member drives to a store to buy office supplies for the whole agency).
Note: DHS does not require the cost report preparer to include out-of-program mileage in the cost report. If the cost reporter preparer includes out-of-program mileage in the cost report, they should allocate it to the all other services cost category.

Transportation costs do not include:

· The worker’s compensation for time to provide transportation as part of either in-program or out-of-program service delivery. The cost report preparer should report staff time as wages on either administrative and program support wages – employees or direct care and supervisor wages – employees and allocate their time to the appropriate cost category.

· Mileage costs for a car used to provide program service delivery if the car does not belong to the direct care staff member or the agency (e.g., a direct care staff member uses the person’s car to drive the person into the community).

PCA/CFSS provider agencies are not required to provide transportation. If they provide transportation services, they can include transportation in their cost report as of February 2024.

U

Unique Minnesota Provider Identifier (UMPI): A unique identifier, similar to an NPI, used to submit all claims to Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP). The UMPI allows providers to be paid for MHCP-covered services through the waivers.

Next step

Next, review authorized agents and provider users.