TITLE 39

HEALTH AND SAFETY

CHAPTER 56

PERSONAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES

39-5601.  Legislative intent. The purpose and intent of this chapter is to authorize personal assistance services for medicaid eligible participants in the participant’s home and community. It is further the purpose of this chapter to help maintain these eligible participants in their own homes in order to provide for the greatest degree of independence and self-reliance possible.

Personal assistance services are an integral component of the long-term care service delivery system and they are to be designed to provide a range of services for persons who are elderly, for persons with disabilities and for children who meet medical necessity criteria for personal care services (PCS). These services are to help individuals compensate for functional limitations and are to be delivered over a sustained period of time to persons who lost or never acquired some degree of functional capacity. Services will be viewed as enhancing the quality of life, individual choice, consumer control, independence and community integration.

Personal assistance services related to functional need shall be provided in order to maintain the independence, privacy, and dignity of the individual in the least restrictive, most cost-effective setting.

The participant and, at the option of the participant, the family of the participant, if available, shall be involved in the development of the individual service plan based on the participant’s needs identified through an assessment conducted by the department.

History:

[(39-5601) 39-A4701, added 1981, ch. 65, sec. 1, p. 93; am. & redesig. 1990, ch. 326, sec. 1, p. 889; am. 2000, ch. 274, sec. 122, p. 859; am. 2010, ch. 347, sec. 1, p. 905.]