SB2453

Report Title:

Personal Needs Allowance; Adult Residential Care

Description:

Requires, by audit, residential care homes (not long term facilities) to appropriately disperse personal needs funds.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2453
TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to adult residential care.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provides supplemental payments to the aged, blind, and disabled who have no or very little income from Social Security or other resources. The SSI/Medicaid recipients in domiciliary care homes (also known as residential care homes) or long-term care homes retain, out of their SSI payments, a $30 per month personal needs allowance (also known as a personal fund allowance) under federal law. The remaining funds go to the care facility.

The legislature further finds that the personal needs allowance provides for recipients to pay for clothing and other miscellaneous personal needs such as toiletries, bus fare, personal postage costs, snacks, and other costs of day-to-day living. Their remaining income goes to pay for part of their care facilities' expenses, their SSI/Medicaid program, and while the State covers the remaining care facilities' costs.

Additionally, the State currently provides a $20 per month personal needs allowance to the recipient. The combined total of federal and state contributions to the recipient's personal needs allowance is $50 per month.

The legislature finds that an accounting of the federal portion of personal needs allowance, when paid to long-term care homes, falls under federal scrutiny and has a sufficient auditing system whereby both federal and state funds are properly audited and distributed through the long-term care home to the recipients. However, the personal needs allowance distributed through the domiciliary care homes does not fall under the same federal scrutiny and has on some occasions resulted in funds not being properly distributed to the recipients, or the recipients are being charged out of their personal needs allowance for personal items not needed.

The purpose of this Act is to establish a sufficient accounting system that will ensure that domiciliary care homes properly distribute the personal needs allowance funds to the entitled recipients.

SECTION 2. Chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§346-    Adult residential care home audit. (a) Adult residential care homes shall submit on a quarterly basis a listing of each resident receiving or entitled to a personal needs allowance from the State. The list shall consist of the resident's name, the amount received by the care home from the state and federal government that is intended for distribution to the resident recipient for each month in the quarter, the monthly balance of the account if the account is maintained by the care home operator, and any funds that the care home operator deducted from the allowance and the reason for the deduction.

(b) The department shall adopt rules under chapter 91 necessary to carry out the purposes of this section."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________