Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program

The Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) is funded by NYS Medicaid and allows our clients to hire personal assistants of their choosing. Our clients develop a plan of care with their insurance plan and designated their own personal assistants to carry out the plan of care. Personal assistants would assist with daily living activities, such as feeding, bathing, meal preparations, grooming, dressing, housekeeping, etc. One of the biggest differences between a home health aide and a personal assistant is that a personal assistant is also able to perform simple skilled tasks such as administering medication, wound care, injections. This is a great program for people who have close relationships with their families or friends to provide care in the home.

Consumer’s Responsibilities and Regulations

1. Hire, train, and fire personal assistants. This is YOUR care, and you are responsible for making sure you have someone capable of fulfilling your plan of care.
2. Keeping an appropriate schedule for personal assistants (PA) and back-up personal assistants (BPA).
3. Notifying Link Homecare if there are changes in your PA’s employment.
4. Maintaining a safe and appropriate home environment so you PAs can provide you with proper care.
5. Train your PAs to provide the proper care. It is your responsibility to make sure your PAs understand what your plan of care is – what you need help with, when you need them there, what you need done THAT PERTAINS TO YOUR CARE.
6. Inform your insurance plan and Link Homecare whenever there is a change in status or condition, eg: hospitalizations, vacations, address and phone number changes, improvements or deteriorations in health condition IMMEDIATELY. Please note: Personal Assistants may NOT punch in and out while you are in the hospital as it is against NYS Medicaid policies and guidelines.
7. Ensure that PA and BPA’s paperwork is submitted in a timely manner. This includes their annual physicals, TB testing, proof of mandatory vaccinations or immunity levels, timecards, and employment documentation.
8. Ensure you have a proper plan and schedule in place for your PA and BPA to carry out your plan of care effectively. Should a PA work OVER the authorized hours, Client or Designated Representative is responsible for payment of these wages.
9. Review and verify the hours on the timecard are accurate. Falsifying timesheets will result in major legal ramifications including fines and incarceration for Medicaid Fraud.
10. The Federal Government and the State of New York have enacted the False Claims Act that makes it a crime to knowingly make a false record and/or file a false claim with the government for payment. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations may result in possible disciplinary action including a termination of the contract.
11. Compliance issues and Fraud, Waste, and Abuse (FWA) are to be reported in order to ensure prevention. Failure to report a potential violation or suspected FWA that you are aware of may result in possible disciplinary action including termination of the Link Homecare CDPAP Contract

Responsibilities of Link Homecare

1. Link Homecare serves as a FISCAL INTERMEDIARY. Determine and process wages and benefits for PAs. Payroll will be processed on a weekly basis based on APPROVED and SIGNED timecards on FINGERCHECK MOBILE and the plan of care approved by the insurance plan, which includes processing of income tax and required wage withholdings. Cocoon Homecare will ensure that all PAs are covered under worker’s compensation, disability, and unemployment insurance.
2. Ensure that PAs’ health status is assessed on an annual basis to ensure they remain medically fit to care for client.
3. Maintain personnel records for each PA, including employment and medical documents and weekly timesheets.
4. Maintain records for each consumer including enrollment paperwork, authorizations, and reauthorizations for care.
5. Monitor the consumer’s/designated representative’s ability to fulfill their responsibilities under the CDPAP guidelines and notifying the plan if the consumer or designated representative is no longer capable of fulfilling such responsibilities.
6. Ensure that all parties are fulfilling the responsibilities and staying compliant with the program’s guidelines and notifying the insurance plan if there is any suspicion of any party not fulfilling their responsibilities.
7. Securing client’s and PA’ confidential information and staying compliant under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). We will not share any o f your information unless we have obtained your consent to do so.

Additional Notes and Agreements

1. Link Homecare is not authorized to send a replacement if your PAs are unable to work unless you inform the plan that you would like to switch to receive Personal Care Services with a Home Health Aide. But this will mean that you are no longer under the CDPAP program and your PAs will no longer be authorized to care for you.
2. Link Homecare CANNOT pay anything over the authorized hours. We MUST follow your plan of care issued by the Insurance Plan.
3. Link Homecare limits every PA to work a maximum of 50 hours per week.
4. The Client and PA must take a picture TOGETHER during punch in and out for compliance records in the event of a Medicaid audit.
5. Link Homecare CANNOT enter punch in or punch out times for a PA without the time being confirmed by the client.
6. If your PAs are not enrolled by the time you are ready to start care, you will either have to accept a Home Health Aide or the insurance company reserves the right to disenroll you from the plan.
7. Your advocate will reach out to you 1-3 days before your start date (if an authorization has been received) to walk through time and attendance, time card approvals, and who will be your contact moving forward.

Release Notice
In order to process your home care referral, Link Homecare must be given consent to share your medical and personal information with the insurance plan of your choice and any other relevant agencies. Please initial to verify that Link Homecare has your consent to send necessary information to the proper agencies.