Effective January 1, 2016, the Home Care Consumer Protection Act was put into place for CA Home Care Regulations to encourage protection for senior individuals who hire non-medical home care agencies for assistance with activities of daily living in their homes.

All too often, abuse and neglect happen with home health care workers and the elderly.  In fact, an estimated four million older Americans are victims of physical, psychological or other forms of abuse and neglect every single year, according to the American Psychological Association. In addition, for every case that is reported, it’s thought that 23 cases go undetected.

That’s why the Home Care Consumer Protection Act was implemented, and very rightly so. The California Health and Safety Code mandates that the California Department of Social Services license home care organizations and establish, maintain, and update a public registry of registered home care aides and home care aide applicants. This response to a growing concern for pubic safety in home care establishes a licensing program for home-care organizations that requires background checks, basic training, and tuberculosis screening for aides they hire. The Department of Social Services will also be able to tell consumers if a particular aide has passed a background check through an accessible registry. To be able to search for a particular provider, you’ll need the aid’s first, last name and HCA ID/PER ID.

The registry includes the following information:

• Name
• Registration #
• Registration status
• Expiration date
• Home care organization affiliation if applicable

As the law was previously written, anyone providing skilled nursing services had to be licensed with the proper training and background checks. That’s all well and good, but what about those who provide non-medical, in-home personal care services such as grooming, meal preparation, bathing, and meal prep? They did not have to be held to the same standards. Now they must.

Home care services are non-medical services that may include some or all of the following:

• Bathing
• Companionship
• Dressing
• Exercising
• Feeding
• Toileting
• Housekeeping
• Meal planning
• Laundry
• Transportation
• Correspondence
• Shopping
• Personal hygiene
• Transferring

According to the Signal Tribune, about 1,200 privately-funded home care organizations throughout California have nothing more than a business license. That means there’s nothing holding them to high standards of quality care that could be bolstered by background checks and the like.

Home Care Consumer Protection Act is being implemented under the guidance of the newly-formed Home Care Services Bureau (HCSB) which oversees the licensing and oversight of home care organizations, along with the application process and maintenance of the registry. The criminal background checks will be overseen by the Caregiver Background Check Bureau.

For more information on the CA Home Care Regulations  and how it affects you, please get in touch with All Heart Home Care at 619-736-4677. We do all we can to ensure your loved ones are kept safe every single day.