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An Ordinance of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending the Allegheny County Administrative Code by adding a new Article 919 that governs Office of Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD) contracts by providing that vendors provide information about the quality of service, work force, and business practices of its agency and comply with County requests for information as conditions of its contract.
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WHEREAS, in Allegheny County there are over 9,500 people with mental retardation or developmental disabilities that are served through home and community-based systems by not-for-profit agencies with which the County contracts at an annual cost of over $180 million; and
WHEREAS, home and community-based services are cost-effective and high in customer satisfaction and served a desperate need caused by decades of deinstitutionalization, a need that is expected to increase again as elderly family caretakers look for support for aging children; and
WHEREAS, a large amount of information on individuals providers is currently requested by the County MR/DD Office or the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, but the information is not easy to find or navigate for consumers, yet is public information that should be accessible to clients and caregivers who are seeking to make decisions about community-based care; and
WHEREAS, the County currently offers services and support directories for families and consumers navigating the system of community-based care; the implementation of a Provider Report with additional public information that provides “report cards” in areas that impact upon the quality of care that each provider offers, further allowing an evaluation of the efficiency, effectiveness, and success of each provider.
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
The provisions set forth in the preamble to this Ordinance are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.
SECTION 2.
Part 9 of the Administrative Code is amended by adding a new Article 919 as follows:
ARTICLE 919
Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Contracts
§ 5-919.01. Policy.
A. It shall be the policy of Allegheny County that persons with mental retardation have the same rights and should be afforded the same opportunities to live, work, and find recreation in the same environments as other Allegheny County citizens.
B. In keeping with the principles of the Department of Human Services, all services will be high quality, readily accessible, strengths-based, culturally competent, individually tailored and empowering, and holistic.
C. Assuring that consumers, families, and workers within the County are afforded sufficient information to make informed choices about where to seek services, to assess the health of the community-based system, and to participate in ongoing discussions about system transformation shall be a priority of the County.
§ 5-919.02. Definitions.
The following words and phrases when used in this article shall have, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the meanings give to them in this section:
COMMUNITY-BASED MR SYSTEM - Pennsylvania's county-run mental retardation service system established by the 1966 Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act.
CONSUMER - An individual who is registered with the County mental retardation program or who receives supports or services from facilities licensed by the Department of Public Welfare's Office of Mental Retardation, or both.
DIRECT CARE WORKER - Workers in the Community-Based MR System whose primary contact is with consumers of services. This term shall also apply to those employees who are designated as Specialist Assistant 1, 2, 3 or 4 within the personnel action plan filed with the County.
INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT - Employment of a person with a developmental disability where the employer is not related to the pre-vocational facility; sometimes called competitive employment.
PROVIDER - An entity that receives funds pursuant to a contract with Allegheny County, specifically with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, either directly or indirectly, to provide or secure supports or services for individuals authorized to receive services from a county mental retardation program.
PROVIDER'S TOP MANAGEMENT - A provider's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), Executive Director (if different from CEO), and Human Resources Director.
VOCATIONAL FACILITY - A premise in which rehabilitative, habilitative, or handicapped employment or employment training is provided to one or more disabled clients for part of a 24-hour day, as defined by 55 Pa. Code. Chapter 2390.
§ 5-919.03. Condition of contracting.
A. All providers, as a condition of contracting, shall be required to file an annual Provider Report with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Office of MR/DD.
B. The content and form of the provider report shall be promulgated by the Office of MR/DD in consultation with stakeholders including, but not limited to, consumers, family members, direct care workers, and providers in order to determine the format and any additional content for the report not required by this section. Provision shall be made to provide for electronic submission of the report by providers.
C. The Provider Report shall contain the following information:
(1) General Information:
a. Provider's name, business address, and telephone number;
b. Contact person and phone number;
c. Name of program, type of service provided, and goals of program; and
d. Hours of operation, licensed consumer capacity, and current consumer enrollment.
(2) Business Information:
a. Provider's annual expenditures broken down into the following categories:
i. Personnel expenses;
ii. Operating expenses;
iii. Administrative expenses;
iv. Purchased treatment; and
v. Equipment & other fixed assets;
b. Provider's related party information, including for each related party:
i. Name of parties;
ii. Type of relationship;
iii. Total business transacted between provider and related party;
iv. Annual compensation for related party's top management (same positions as provider's top management); and
v. Annual increase in compensation for top management;
c. Provider's rate of return (i.e. net income presented as a fraction of revenue);
d. Provider's total compensation for top management, broken down into salaries and benefits; and
e. Annual hourly dollar increase given to each member of provider's top management.
(3) Vocational Facilities Data:
a. Number of consumers working in vocational facilities;
b. Number of consumers in previous year who moved from vocational facilities to integrated employment;
c. Number of consumers in vocational facilities who earn less than the federal minimum wage;
d. Total revenues generated from sales of goods and services produced in provider's segregated settings; and
e. Businesses contracting with the provider for goods and services produced in segregated settings.
(4) Workforce Information:
a. Annual aggregate turnover rate amongst provider's direct care workers;
b. Annual aggregate vacancy rate amongst provider's direct care workers;
c. Minimum, maximum, and average hourly wages paid to provider's direct care workers;
d. Benefits offered to direct care workers and portion of those benefits that provider funds; and
e. Average annual increase given by provider to its direct care workers in hourly dollar amount.
(5) Incident Information:
a. The number of and information from Home and Community Services Information System (HCSIS) incident reports that have been reviewed and approved by the County as described in paragraph 6000.971 of the Pennsylvania Incident Management Mental Retardation Bulletin (Number 6000-04-01);
i. If the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare issues subsequent bulletins which supersede the provisions of Number 6000-04-01, the updated paragraphs shall replace those of the referenced bulletin.
b. The number of and information from abbreviated incident reports that have been completed as per paragraph 6000.962 of the Pennsylvania Incident Management Mental Retardation Bulletin (Number 6000-04-01);
c. Information from the HCSIS quarterly incident reports for Allegheny County including, but not limited to the time frame, primary nature of incident, secondary nature of incident, and count of incidents; and
d. In all information released to the public, names of consumers and other information by which a consumer could be identified, as well as confidential health information as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), shall be removed or struck out by the County prior to release to the public.
D. Provider Reports shall be public documents made available to the public upon request.
(1) All Provider Reports shall be made available for public inspection in the Office of MR/DD. The Office may establish and charge reasonable costs for duplication.
(2) A policy shall be established by the Office of MR/DD and made available to the public setting forth guidelines, procedures, and costs to supply provider reports by U.S. Mail.
(3) Notice of the availability of Provider Reports and their location shall be made available for posting at vocational rehabilitation centers located in Allegheny County, at Intermediate Service Coordination Units (ISCUs), offices of Pennsylvania Protection and Advocacy, and in the appropriate transition planning offices of area school systems and charter schools.
(4) All effort shall be made to post Provider Reports online at the Office of MR/DD website. Beginning January 1, 2007, all provider reports submitted electronically shall be made accessible on the County's Office of MR/DD website. Beginning January 1, 2009, all provider reports, regardless of the means by which they were filed with the Office of MR/DD, shall be made accessible on the website.
(5) All provider reports, both in hard copy and those made accessible on the website, shall remain accessible as public documents for a period of three years.
§ 5-919.04. Non-compliance and sanctions.
A. Compliance with this article of the Administrative Code shall be a condition applicable to the service or services provided through all new agreements between the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and a Provider.
B. In the event that the Office of MR/DD shall determine that a Provider has failed to furnish the requested report, the County may:
(1) Hire an agent of the County to gather the information, with cost to be billed to the Provider, and said agent shall be permitted access to all necessary records for such purpose;
(2) Withhold payments due to Provider pending receipt of required information;
(3) Impose a penalty; and/or
(4) Make Provider's non-compliance a consideration in future contract awards.
SECTION 3. If any provision of this Ordinance shall be determined to be unlawful, invalid, void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be considered severable from the remaining provisions of this Ordinance which shall be in full force and effect.
SECTION 4. Any Resolution or Ordinance or part thereof conflicting with the provisions of this Ordinance is hereby repealed so far as the same affects this Ordinance.