HOME HEALTH AIDE (HHA)

HOME HEALTH AIDE

• Home health aides are assigned to a specific patient by a registered nurse or other appropriate skilled professional, with written patient care instructions for a home health aide prepared by that registered nurse or other appropriate skilled professional (that is, physical therapist, speech-language pathologist, or occupational therapist).
• A home health aide provides services that are:
• Ordered by the physician or allowed practitioner;
• Included in the plan of care;
• Permitted to be performed under state law; and
• Consistent with the home health aide training.
• The duties of a home health aide include:
• The provision of hands-on personal care;
• The performance of simple procedures as an extension of therapy or nursing services;
• Assistance in ambulation or exercises; and
• Assistance in administering medications ordinarily self-administered.
• Home health aides must be members of the interdisciplinary team, must report changes in the client’s condition to a registered nurse or other appropriate skilled professional, and must complete appropriate records in compliance with the Madea Home Care Services LLC policies and procedures.

• A qualified home health aide is a person who has successfully completed:
• A training and competency evaluation program as specified in paragraphs (b) and (c) respectively of this section; or
• A competency evaluation program that meets the requirements of paragraph (c) of this section; or
• A nurse aide training and competency evaluation program approved by the state as meeting the requirements of 42 CFR Part 484§438.151 through §483.154 of this chapter, and is currently listed in good standing on the state nurse aide registry; or
• The requirements of a state licensure program that meets the provisions of paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section.
• A home health aide or nurse aide is not considered to have completed a program, as specified in paragraph (a)(1) of this section, if, since the individual’s most recent completion of the program(s), there has been a continuous period of 24 consecutive months during which none of the services furnished by the individual as described in 42 CFR Part 484§409.40 of this chapter were for compensation. If there has been a 24-month lapse in furnishing services for compensation, the individual must complete another program, as specified in paragraph (a)(1) of this section, before providing services.

• A home health aide may be used by an agency providing licensed home health services if the aide meets one the following requirements:
• a minimum of one year of full-time experience in direct client care in an institutional setting (hospital or nursing facility);
• one year of full-time experience within the last five years in direct client care in an agency setting;
• satisfactorily completed a training and competency evaluation program that complies with the requirements of this section;
• satisfactorily completed a competency evaluation program that complies with the requirements of this section;
• submitted to the agency documentation from the director of programs or the dean of a school of nursing that state that the individual is a nursing student who has demonstrated competency in providing basic nursing skills in accordance with the school’s curriculum; or
• listed on the HHSC nurse aide registry (NAR) with no finding against the aide relating to the client abuse or neglect or misappropriation of client property.
• A home health aide must have provided home health services within the previous 24 months to qualify under subsection (a)(3) or (4) of this section.
• Assignment, delegation, and supervision of services provided by home health aides must be performed in accordance with rules in thi