Personal aides act at the direction of an adult person with a functional disability to provide health care services in the person's home.  The health care tasks performed by personal aides may include medical, nursing, or home health services that enable the person to maintain independence, personal hygiene, and safety in the person's home.  The health care tasks are limited to those that persons without a functional disability would customarily perform themselves without the assistance of a licensed health care provider.
 
Personal aides may either work privately or as individual providers.  Individual providers provide personal care or respite care services to persons who are functionally disabled and they work under contract with the Department of Social and Health Services (Department) or as employees of a consumer-directed employer.  Personal aides who work as individual providers must also be under contract or agreement with the Department, as well as registered with the Department.
 
In 2018 the Department was authorized to establish a consumer-directed employer program.  Under a consumer-directed employer program, the Department's responsibility to contract with individual providers and pay them for the services that they provide to Department clients is shifted to a private entity which acts as the employer of the individual providers and contracts with the Department for reimbursement for the services provided.  The shift to a consumer-directed employer system is occurring in phases and began in late 2021 and continues into 2022.

Requirements that personal aides who work as individual providers be under contract or agreement with the Department of Social and Health Services (Department) and registered with the Department are removed.