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External Program Review Committee (EPRC) minutes

Date: April 4, 2024

DSD liaisons: Stacie Enders and Ari Dionisopoulos

Type: Whole committee

Attendees: Antonina (Toni) Puente, Jodi Greenstein, Kim Frost, Laura Daire, Lindsay Nash, Victoria Anderson, Dan Baker, Stacy Danov and Melanie Eidsmoe

Not present: Danielle Bishop and Susie Haben

Agenda items

Review the meeting agenda for further information.

Public comments

There were no public comments at this meeting.

Vote

Vote to approve the minutes from March 2024:

· Toni Puente: yes

· Jodi Greenstein: yes

· Kim Frost: yes

· Laura Daire: yes

· Lindsay Nash: yes

· Victoria Anderson: yes

· Dan Baker: yes

· Stacy Danov: yes

· Melanie Eidsmoe: yes

Updates to share

Direct care workforce shortage

Senator Abeler moved to amend S.F. No. 4399 as follows:

Page 13, after line 20, insert:

"Sec. 12. Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 256B.0659, subdivision 17a, is amended to read: Subd. 17a. Enhanced rate.

(a) An enhanced rate of 107.5 percent of the rate paid for personal care assistance services shall be paid for services provided to persons who qualify for ten or more hours of personal care assistance services per day when provided by a personal care assistant who meets the requirements of subdivision 11, paragraph (d).

(b) A personal care assistance provider must use all additional revenue attributable to the rate enhancements under this subdivision for the wages and wage-related costs of the personal care assistants, including any corresponding increase in the employer's share of FICA taxes, Medicare taxes, state and federal unemployment taxes, and workers' compensation premiums. The agency must not use the additional revenue attributable to any enhanced rate under this subdivision to pay for mileage reimbursement, health and dental insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, uniform allowance, contributions to employee retirement accounts, or any other employee benefits.

(c) Any change in the eligibility criteria for the enhanced rate for personal care assistance services as described in this subdivision and referenced in subdivision 11, paragraph (d), does not constitute a change in a term or condition for individual providers as defined in section 256B.0711, and is not subject to the state's obligation to meet and negotiate under chapter 179A.

EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective July 1, 2024.

Subcommittee updates

Requests for approval subcommittee

· This subcommittee continues to work towards long-term relationships with teams.

· They thought they were going to get another request for a buckle guard, but the provider is now using a vehicle barrier instead (like what might be used in a taxi), which does not require commissioner approval.

Discussion

Annual recommendations

The committee discussed a plan for their 2023 annual report:

· Victoria will have a draft ready within 2 weeks.

· Stacie will add data needed from DHS to the report between April 18-24.

· The rest of the committee will be able to start their review of the draft on April 25. Committee members will discuss the draft report as a group at their May meeting.

· We will send the draft to Communications after the May meeting.

2023-2024 Goal 2: Simplify and organize online DHS materials and training resources related to positive supports or intervention services

The Community Capacity and Positive Supports team will be meeting next week with other areas of DHS to start working on this again now that the psych med manual is complete. The group hopes to unify duplicative resources for positive supports into a single resource for DHS.

2023-2024 Goal 3: Explore ways to improve access to positive support services

The intervention and respite services study is on track. The vendor is currently working on having their survey and focus group questions and protocols reviewed by the Institutional Review Board and the interagency workgroup overseeing the project.

2023-2024 Goal 4: Support efforts to improve the direct care workforce shortage

We are seeing a lot more activity to address workforce shortages than we saw in years past, which is great.

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