(Formerly Sec. 17-314c). Rates of payment for home care services, transportation, mental health counseling and meals on wheels

The Commissioner of Social Services shall establish annually the maximum allowable rate to be paid by agencies for homemaker services, chore person services, companion services, respite care, meals on wheels, adult day care services, case management and assessment services, transportation, mental health counseling and elderly foster care. The Commissioner of Social Services shall prescribe uniform forms on which agencies providing such services shall report their costs for such services. Such rates shall be determined on the basis of a reasonable payment for necessary services rendered. The maximum allowable rates established by the Commissioner of Social Services for the Connecticut home-care program for the elderly established under section 17b-342 shall constitute the rates required under this section until revised in accordance with this section. The Commissioner of Social Services shall establish a fee schedule, to be effective on and after July 1, 1994, for homemaker services, chore person services, companion services, respite care, meals on wheels, adult day care services, case management and assessment services, transportation, mental health counseling and elderly foster care. The commissioner may annually increase the fee schedule based on an increase in the cost of services. The commissioner shall increase the fee schedule effective July 1, 2000, by not less than five per cent, for adult day care services. The commissioner shall increase the fee schedule effective July 1, 2011, by four dollars per person, per day for adult day care services. The commissioner shall increase the fee schedule effective July 1, 2019, for meals on wheels by ten per cent over the fee schedule for meals on wheels for the previous fiscal year. Effective July 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, the commissioner may increase the fee schedule for meals on wheels providers serving participants in the Connecticut home-care program for the elderly by, at a minimum, the cost-of-living adjustment as measured by the consumer price index. The commissioner may increase any fee payable to a meals on wheels provider upon the application of such provider evidencing extraordinary costs related to delivery of meals on wheels in sparsely populated rural regions of the state. Nothing contained in this section shall authorize a payment by the state to any agency for such services in excess of the amount charged by such agency for such services to the general public.