N.Y. Social Services Law § 364-h: Foster family care demonstration programs for elderly or disabled persons

* § 364-h. Foster family care demonstration programs for elderly or

disabled persons. 1. The department is authorized to designate up to ten

entities which may include general hospitals, residential health care

facilities, home health care programs, and long term home health care

programs for the purpose of testing whether foster family care programs

for certain elderly or disabled persons can be appropriate alternatives

to institutional placement in those instances where such individuals do

not have a home or the necessary resources or family support to live in

the community.

2. A hospital, facility, or program designated as a foster family care

demonstration program shall perform the following functions:

(a) recruitment, selection and training of families to serve as foster

families;

(b) selection of those elderly or disabled persons who will receive

foster family care services under the demonstration project authorized

herein, and assessment of their needs;

(c) provision of or arrangement for necessary medical services; and

(d) monitoring the care being received by the person in the foster

family care home, and assessing the continuing viability of placement in

such home.

3. Persons eligible to participate in the foster family care

demonstration programs authorized by this section shall be:

(a) medically eligible for placement in a skilled nursing facility or

a health related facility or eligible for home care services;

(b) capable of being cared for in the community if a suitable home

environment and medical support services are provided; and

(c) lacking the home, resources or family support to live in the

community.

4. Families who participate in the foster family care demonstration

program shall be willing and able to provide:

(a) room and board;

(b) supervision of or assistance with the activities of daily living;

and

(c) personal care and other related services which may be necessary to

maintain the person in the community.

5. In designating a hospital, facility, or program to provide a foster

family care program, the department shall be satisfied as to the

cost-effectiveness of the proposal as compared to institutional long

term care.

6. The commissioner may waive the provisions of titles one and two of

article seven of this chapter and regulations of the department relative

thereto as necessary to implement the provisions of this section;

provided, however, the commissioner shall be satisfied that the health,

safety and welfare of persons participating in the foster care programs

are not affected negatively by such waivers.

7. This section shall not be interpreted to restrict a medical

assistance recipient's choice of provider of services to which he is

entitled pursuant to this title or to authorize any change in the

eligibility criteria for medical assistance.

8. A medical assistance recipient may discontinue participation in a

foster family care demonstration program at any time.

9. The department shall utilize all potential sources of funding for

such foster family care programs including, but not limited to, funding

available through titles sixteen, eighteen, nineteen and twenty of the

federal social security act and the federal older Americans act of 1965,

as amended. Services provided as part of a foster family care program

and related administrative expenses not otherwise eligible for coverage

under these or other funding sources shall be eligible for reimbursement

under the medical assistance program for the purposes of this

demonstration as long as federal financial participation is available.

The department shall take all steps necessary to secure such funding

including the submission of applicable waivers. Copies of waiver

submissions shall be provided to the chairman of the senate finance

committee and the chairman of the assembly ways and means committee.

10. The department, in consultation with the department of health and

the office for the aging, shall provide an interim report to the

governor and the legislature on or before November first, nineteen

hundred eighty-six and a final report on or before October thirty-one,

nineteen hundred ninety-five on the results of the foster family care

demonstration program. The report shall include findings as to the

program's cost effectiveness including consideration of the costs of

maintaining the person in the community, funding sources, programmatic

benefits and the effect on the need for residential health care facility

beds. In the final report, the department shall offer recommendations as

to whether the program should be extended, modified, eliminated or made

permanent.

11. Foster family care demonstration programs authorized pursuant to

chapter nine hundred forty-two of the laws of nineteen hundred

eighty-three and chapter five hundred forty-one of the laws of nineteen

hundred eighty-four shall comply with the provisions of this section but

shall be in addition to the entities designated in subdivision one of

this section. Such previously authorized demonstration projects shall be

subject to the expiration date of this section.

* NB Repealed December 31, 2027