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An Act To Allow Parents of Minors Who Qualify for In-home Personal Care under the MaineCare Program To Be Employed as Caregivers for Those Minors
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  22 MRSA §3174-EEE  is enacted to read:
§ 3174-EEE. In-home personal care services to minors
 
1.  Reimbursement for parent.     A parent of a child who is eligible for in-home personal care services under the MaineCare program may register as a personal care agency as defined in section 1717, subsection 1, paragraph C and determined in department rule and receive reimbursement for providing those services to the child.
 
2.  Employer designation.     In order for a parent to be registered as a personal care agency under subsection 1, another individual who is not a parent of the child must be designated the employer. The person designated as the employer must be approved by both the department and the parent to act in the child's interest.
 
3.  Rulemaking.     The department shall adopt rules to implement this section. Rules adopted pursuant to this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 2. Department of Health and Human Services to seek federal approval. The Department of Health and Human Services shall seek any necessary state plan amendments or waivers from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to implement the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 22, section 3174-EEE. The department shall submit the requests for approval no later than 6 months after the effective date of this Act.
Sec. 3. Rulemaking. The Department of Health and Human Services shall adopt rules in accordance with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 22, section 3174-EEE, subsection 3 no later than 6 months after receiving the necessary approvals from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Sec. 4. Contingent effective date. That section of this Act that enacts the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 22, section 3174-EEE takes effect only if the necessary approvals sought pursuant to section 2 of this Act are received. The Commissioner of Health and Human Services shall notify the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Senate, Clerk of the House of Representatives and Revisor of Statutes when approvals sought under section 2 have been received.
 
SUMMARY
This bill allows for the reimbursement of a parent providing in-home personal care services to the parent's child by allowing the parent to register as a personal care agency. The child must be eligible for the MaineCare program. An individual who is not a parent of the child must be designated as the employer and must be approved as the employer by both the parent and the Department of Health and Human Services. The department is required to request the necessary state plan amendments or waivers from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and adopt routine technical rules upon federal approval.