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Committee hears from rural adult foster‑care providers seeking more time off and clarification of requirements in HB 14‑60
Summary
Adult foster‑care providers and a co‑sponsoring lawmaker asked the committee to modify time‑off rules and study adult foster‑care rules; provider Jessica Nelson described 24‑hour care, limited staffing and reimbursement differences between private pay and state‑funded residents.
Senator Paul Thomas and Representative Jessica Anderson presented House Bill 14‑60 to the House Human Services Committee, saying the bill would change substitute caregiver and respite‑care provider requirements for adult foster homes and create a legislative management study to review adult foster‑care rules.
Jessica Nelson, an adult foster‑home operator who specializes in dementia care, testified in support and described the workload and operational challenges for privately paid providers in rural areas. "This job...is a 24 hour job," Nelson said, and described a current statutory limit of 96 days off per year where "anything over 8 hours is considered a day off." She asked the committee to change the definition to 12 hours for day‑off counting so that rural providers could have meaningful time away and address travel and life obligations.
Nelson said her home typically cares for up to four residents under the licensing framework and currently has two full‑time residents and one respite client. She explained that private‑pay providers do not receive the same staffing or assessment support the state provides for publicly funded residents; private pay residents leave the provider responsible for finding and paying substitute staff. "If my residents were being funded by the state, then the state would reimburse me for 96 days off a year," Nelson said.
Committee members asked about staffing, qualifications for substitute caregivers and whether the change to 12 hours would sufficiently increase time off; Nelson said substitutes must meet a letter‑of‑competency requirement and background checks and that she would prefer a CNA requirement for substitutes. She also requested study authority to reconcile differences between the adult‑foster‑care manual and the qualified‑service provider manual and to clarify visitor hours and other operational rules for privately run adult foster homes.
Representative Anderson and co‑sponsor Senator Thomas described the bill as a rural access and workforce measure: it would help sustain smaller, community‑based adult foster homes, reduce pressure on nursing homes and allow more families to keep loved ones near home. Other supporters, including a local resident and a former QSP, testified in favor, citing the need to balance resident safety and provider sustainability.
Ending: The committee heard provider testimony and co‑sponsors emphasized the need to study operational rules across manuals; no vote was recorded and the committee closed the hearing for later committee consideration.
