BILL REQ. #:  H-2378.1 

Read first time 02/23/2007.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to making the governor the public employer of adult family home caregivers; amending RCW 74.39A.240 and 74.39A.270; adding a new section to chapter 74.39A RCW; and creating a new section.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 74.39A.240 and 2002 c 3 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     The definitions in this section apply throughout RCW 74.39A.030 and 74.39A.095 and 74.39A.220 through 74.39A.300, 41.56.026, 70.127.041, ((and)) 74.09.740, and section 3 of this act unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
     (1) "Authority" means the home care quality authority.
     (2) "Board" means the board created under RCW 74.39A.230.
     (3) "Caregiver" means the same as in RCW 70.128.230.
     (4) "Consumer" means a person to whom an individual provider provides any such services.
     (((4))) (5) "Direct care worker" means any caregiver, except the provider and the resident manager, working in an adult family home.
     (6) "Individual provider" means a person, including a personal aide, who has contracted with the department to provide personal care or respite care services to functionally disabled persons under the medicaid personal care, community options program entry system, chore services program, or respite care program, or to provide respite care or residential services and support to persons with developmental disabilities under chapter 71A.12 RCW, or to provide respite care as defined in RCW 74.13.270, or to provide care as direct care workers in adult family homes.
     (7) "Individual provider direct care worker" means any caregiver reclassified as an individual provider under section 3 of this act.
     (8) "Provider" means the same as in RCW 70.128.010.

Sec. 2   RCW 74.39A.270 and 2006 c 106 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Solely for the purposes of collective bargaining and as expressly limited under subsections (2) and (3) of this section, the governor is the public employer, as defined in chapter 41.56 RCW, of individual providers, who, solely for the purposes of collective bargaining, are public employees as defined in chapter 41.56 RCW. To accommodate the role of the state as payor for the community-based services provided under this chapter and to ensure coordination with state employee collective bargaining under chapter 41.80 RCW and the coordination necessary to implement RCW 74.39A.300, the public employer shall be represented for bargaining purposes by the governor or the governor's designee appointed under chapter 41.80 RCW. The governor or governor's designee shall periodically consult with the authority during the collective bargaining process to allow the authority to communicate issues relating to the long-term in-home care services received by consumers. The governor or the governor's designee shall consult the authority on all issues for which the exclusive bargaining representative requests to engage in collective bargaining under subsection (6) of this section. The authority shall work with the developmental disabilities council, the governor's committee on disability issues and employment, the state council on aging, and other consumer advocacy organizations to obtain informed input from consumers on their interests, including impacts on consumer choice, for all issues proposed for collective bargaining under subsection (6) of this section.
     (2) Chapter 41.56 RCW governs the collective bargaining relationship between the governor and individual providers, except as otherwise expressly provided in this chapter and except as follows:
     (a) The only unit appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining under RCW 41.56.060 is a statewide unit of all individual providers;
     (b)(i) The showing of interest required to request an election under RCW 41.56.060 is ten percent of the unit, and any intervener seeking to appear on the ballot must make the same showing of interest;
     (ii) For purposes of an election to become part of the unit, the showing of interest required to request an election under RCW 41.56.060 is ten percent of direct care workers in adult family homes, and any intervener seeking to appear on the ballot must make the same showing of interest. To determine the total number of direct care workers in adult family homes, the commission shall require providers to provide lists of direct care workers in adult family homes to the commission including home addresses, by October 1, 2007;
     (c) The mediation and interest arbitration provisions of RCW 41.56.430 through 41.56.470 and 41.56.480 apply, except that:
     (i) With respect to commencement of negotiations between the governor and the bargaining representative of individual providers, negotiations shall be commenced by May 1st of any year prior to the year in which an existing collective bargaining agreement expires;
     (ii) With respect to factors to be taken into consideration by an interest arbitration panel, the panel shall consider the financial ability of the state to pay for the compensation and fringe benefit provisions of a collective bargaining agreement; and
     (iii) The decision of the arbitration panel is not binding on the legislature and, if the legislature does not approve the request for funds necessary to implement the compensation and fringe benefit provisions of the arbitrated collective bargaining agreement, is not binding on the authority or the state;
     (d) Individual providers do not have the right to strike; and
     (e) Individual providers who are related to, or family members of, consumers or prospective consumers are not, for that reason, exempt from this chapter or chapter 41.56 RCW.
     (3) Individual providers who are public employees solely for the purposes of collective bargaining under subsection (1) of this section are not, for that reason, employees of the state, its political subdivisions, or an area agency on aging for any purpose. Chapter 41.56 RCW applies only to the governance of the collective bargaining relationship between the employer and individual providers as provided in subsections (1) and (2) of this section.
     (4)(a) Consumers and prospective consumers retain the right to select, hire, supervise the work of, and terminate any individual provider providing services to them. Consumers may elect to receive long-term in-home care services from individual providers who are not referred to them by the authority.
     (b) Adult family home providers retain the right to select, hire, supervise the work of, and terminate any individual provider direct care worker.
     (5) In implementing and administering this chapter, neither the authority nor any of its contractors may reduce or increase the hours of service for any consumer below or above the amount determined to be necessary under any assessment prepared by the department or an area agency on aging.
     (6) Except as expressly limited in this section ((and)), RCW 74.39A.300, and section 3 of this act, the wages, hours, and working conditions of individual providers are determined solely through collective bargaining as provided in this chapter. No agency or department of the state may establish policies or rules governing the wages or hours of individual providers. However, this subsection does not modify:
     (a) The department's authority to establish a plan of care for each consumer or its core responsibility to manage long-term in-home care services under this chapter, including determination of the level of care that each consumer is eligible to receive. However, at the request of the exclusive bargaining representative, the governor or the governor's designee appointed under chapter 41.80 RCW shall engage in collective bargaining, as defined in RCW 41.56.030(4), with the exclusive bargaining representative over how the department's core responsibility affects hours of work for individual providers. This subsection shall not be interpreted to require collective bargaining over an individual consumer's plan of care;
     (b) The department's authority to terminate its contracts with individual providers who are not adequately meeting the needs of a particular consumer, or to deny a contract under RCW 74.39A.095(8);
     (c) The consumer's right to assign hours to one or more individual providers selected by the consumer within the maximum hours determined by his or her plan of care;
     (d) The consumer's right to select, hire, terminate, supervise the work of, and determine the conditions of employment for each individual provider providing services to the consumer under this chapter;
     (e) The adult family home provider's right to select, hire, terminate, supervise the work of, and determine the conditions of employment for each individual provider direct care worker;
     (f) The department's obligation to comply with the federal medicaid statute and regulations and the terms of any community-based waiver granted by the federal department of health and human services and to ensure federal financial participation in the provision of the services; and
     (((f))) (g) The legislature's right to make programmatic modifications to the delivery of state services under this title, including standards of eligibility of consumers and individual providers participating in the programs under this title, and the nature of services provided. The governor shall not enter into, extend, or renew any agreement under this chapter that does not expressly reserve the legislative rights described in this subsection (6)(((f))) (g).
     (7)(a) The state, the department, the authority, the area agencies on aging, or their contractors under this chapter may not be held vicariously or jointly liable for the action or inaction of any individual provider or prospective individual provider, whether or not that individual provider or prospective individual provider was included on the authority's referral registry or referred to a consumer or prospective consumer. The existence of a collective bargaining agreement, the placement of an individual provider on the referral registry, or the development or approval of a plan of care for a consumer who chooses to use the services of an individual provider and the provision of case management services to that consumer, by the department or an area agency on aging, does not constitute a special relationship with the consumer.
     (b) The members of the board are immune from any liability resulting from implementation of this chapter.
     (8) Nothing in this section affects the state's responsibility with respect to unemployment insurance for individual providers. However, individual providers are not to be considered, as a result of the state assuming this responsibility, employees of the state.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 74.39A RCW to read as follows:
     The department shall establish a program to improve quality care and recruitment and retention of direct care workers in adult family homes by integrating adult family home caregivers into the individual provider program, consistent with the following:
     (1) For all hours of care provided to medicaid-funded clients, all direct care workers in adult family homes statewide shall be reclassified as individual providers.
     (2) The department of social and health services shall determine the number of hours authorized for medicaid clients in adult family homes, taking into consideration acuity levels as needed. The department may establish authorized hours according to the ratio of the number of hours spent caring for medicaid clients verses nonmedicaid clients in adult family homes.
     (3) Direct care workers in adult family homes shall not be reclassified as individual providers for hours of care provided to nonmedicaid clients.
     (4) Individual provider direct care workers in adult family homes shall be afforded all the benefits of and be subject to the terms and conditions of any collective bargaining agreement for individual providers established under this chapter.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   If any part of this act is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state, the conflicting part of this act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies directly affected, and this finding does not affect the operation of the remainder of this act in its application to the agencies concerned. Rules adopted under this act must meet federal requirements that are a necessary condition to the receipt of federal funds by the state.