Home Care Licensure approved by IRRC

IRRC ( Independent Regulatory Review Commission ) Approves Licensure Regulations!

On Thursday, October 1st. 2009, the IRRC approved the final regulations to license private duty homecare and registries. They will now go to the Attorney General's office for review before the final is published in the Pennsylvania bulletin.

Regulations are intended by the Department of Health to assure safe, adequate and efficient home care agencies and home care registries. The regulations will benefit all future recipients of services provided by home care agencies and home care registries. Based on partial data collected by the Department to date, this will include approximately 650 home care agencies and home care registries and approximately 800,000 consumers.

Thirty-five other states have licensure programs in place for home care services. Home care agencies and home care registries are not likely to avoid doing business in Pennsylvania because Pennsylvania is adopting a licensure program for home care services. While the cost of doing business in Pennsylvania may be a little higher than in a state that does not have a licensure program, the advantages of providing home care services in a sate with such a high elderly population remain.

The licensure program for home care agencies and registries will cost approximately $1,060,000 by the State Government for the first full year of the program.

There may be a cost to the public in the form of higher charges for care because the home agency or home care registry would need to recoup start-up and ongoing costs of compliance with licensure criteria.