NJ Senator Troy Singleton and Assembly Committee on Human Services Chairwoman Assemblywoman Joann Downey have introduced legislation S1820/A3632 to further clarify the Personal Care Assistant (PCA) increase to direct care workers.

The legislation will simplify the process for the PCA direct care worker’s rate increase and will take provider costs into account. GAO is currently meeting with members of the legislature to ask for their support for this clarification bill.

As background, New Jersey’s PCA program has had historically low reimbursement rates under the state’s fee-for-service. Over the last three years, GAO was successful in increasing the state -fee-for-service rate from $15.50 to $18.00 per hour and last year, to $19.00 per hour. Unfortunately, when the PCA program transitioned to Managed Medicaid, managed care companies did not follow the same reimbursement rates and continued to pay, in many cases, less than $15.50 per hour.

In the last legislative session, GAO was successful in passing legislation which set a reimbursement floor in managed care for PCA at $19.00 per hour. However, Governor Christie conditionally vetoed the legislation with a stipulation requiring all increases pass directly through to direct care workers.

The legislation introduced by Senator Singleton and Assemblywoman Downey will further clarify the PCA increases to account for direct and indirect provider costs. If you have any questions about this bill or any other bills in NJ, please feel free to email me at [email protected].