Community Care Attendant Compensation Rate Enhancement
IDD Attendant Compensation Rate Enhancement
Nursing Facility Direct Care Staff Enhancement
Enrollment Information
The 2000-01 General Appropriations Act and S.B. 1839 (77th Legislature) established the attendant compensation rate enhancement and the nursing facility direct care staff rate enhancement. This made certain funding contingent upon HHSC adopting agency rules to incentivize increased compensation to attendants and established incentivizes that increased direct care staffing and direct care wages and benefits in nursing homes.
Enrollment
Open enrollment begins on the first day of July and ends on the last day of that same July preceding the rate year for which payments are being determined, unless the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) notified providers before the first day of July that open enrollment has been postponed or cancelled. Should conditions warrant, HHSC may conduct additional enrollment periods during a rate year. To be acceptable, an enrollment contract amendment must be completed according to instructions, signed by an authorized representative as per the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) signature authority designation form applicable to the provider's contract or ownership type, and legible.
After initial enrollment, participating and nonparticipating providers may request to modify their enrollment status during any open enrollment period. A nonparticipant can request to become a participant; a participant can request to become a nonparticipant; a participant can request to change its participation level. Providers whose prior year enrollment was limited and who request to increase their enrollment levels will be limited to increases of three or fewer enhancement levels during the first open enrollment period after the limitation. Providers that were subject to an enrollment limitation may request to participate at any level during open enrollment beginning two years after limitation.
Requests to modify a provider's enrollment status during an open enrollment period must be received by HHSC Rate Analysis by the last day of the open enrollment period. If the last day of open enrollment is on a weekend day, state holiday, or national holiday, the next business day will be considered the last day requests will be accepted. Providers from which HHSC Rate Analysis has not received an acceptable request to modify their enrollment by the last day of the open enrollment period will continue at the level of participation in effect during the open enrollment period within available funds until the provider notifies HHSC that it no longer wishes to participate or until the provider's enrollment is limited.
New contracts and component codes
A new contract is defined as a contract or component code whose effective date is on or after the first day of the open enrollment period for that rate year. New contracts will be mailed information from HHSC regarding their enrollment. An enrollment contract amendment form signed by an authorized representative as per the DADS signature authority designation form applicable to the provider's contract or ownership type must be received by HHSC Rate Analysis within 30 days of the mailing of notification to the provider that such an enrollment contract amendment must be submitted. If the 30th day is on a weekend day, state holiday, or national holiday, the next business day will be considered the last day requests will be accepted. Contracts that underwent a contract assignment or change of ownership and new contracts that are part of an existing component code are not considered new contracts. For new contracts specifying their desire to participate in the attendant compensation rate enhancement on an acceptable enrollment contract amendment, the attendant compensation rate is adjusted effective on the first day of the month following receipt by HHSC of an acceptable enrollment contract amendment. If the granting of newly requested enhancements was limited during the most recent enrollment, enrollment for new contracts will be subject to that same limitation. If the most recent enrollment was cancelled, new contracts will not be permitted to be enrolled.