Personal Care Assistance (PCA) Choice and financial management services (FMS) provider information

PCA Choice provider agencies and FMS providers need to send the required data for workers who provided services to a PCA Choice, Consumer Directed Community Supports (CDCS) or Consumer Support Grant (CSG) participant.

Download and save the PCA Choice-CDCS-CSG-Reporting Spreadsheet (XLS) from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) Home and community-based services providers web page. You should retain a copy of the spreadsheet that you complete for each pay period.

Send completed spreadsheets to DHS through MN–ITS at the end of the pay period. The agency must submit all spreadsheets for pay periods in a month by the 20th day of the following month.

Send completed spreadsheets to DHS through MN–ITS. Refer to Instructions for submitting a PCA-CDCS-CSG Reporting Spreadsheet through MN–ITS (PDF).

No. You are no longer required to send data to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa. You must send completed spreadsheets to DHS through MN–ITS. If SEIU contacts you to correct errors on your spreadsheets, submit the corrected spreadsheets to SEIU. You do not need to submit the corrected spreadsheets through MN–ITS.

Yes. If you are a PCA Choice agency that doesn’t currently serve any participants through the PCA Choice model, you are still required to submit the spreadsheet with a statement in the notes field that your agency doesn’t currently have any PCA Choice participants.

The SEIU Contract Compliance online training course is available to help you. The training shows how to complete the spreadsheet properly and other responsibilities of PCA Choice agencies and FMS providers. You can also access this training on the PCA section of the DHS Home and community-based services providers webpage. You may also email questions to dhs.dsd.fi.techhelp@state.mn.us.

Yes. PCA agencies are not required to be both a traditional agency and a PCA Choice agency. They can be both or just one of the two if they choose.

To change your enrollment status, use the Minnesota Providers Screening and Enrollment (MPSE) portal or fax a request to Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) Provider Eligibility and Compliance at 651-431-7465. Include the following information:

• NPI or UMPI of the provider agency
• What is to be changed in their record
• Effective date of the change
• Contact person and phone number

Whether a worker is providing traditional PCA services or PCA Choice services depends on what the participant has chosen for who is responsible for employment-related activities such as finding, hiring and discharging workers. The written agreement between your agency and the participant reflects the participant’s choice between traditional PCA and PCA Choice. In traditional PCA, the PCA provider agency is responsible for employment-related activities, including finding backup staff. In PCA Choice, the participant is responsible for these employment-related activities.

Yes. Your agency needs to have a written agreement with each PCA participant served by your agency. For guidance regarding the required contents of the written agreement, refer to the Minnesota Home Care Bill of Rights, Minnesota Statutes, 144A.44, as well as Minnesota Statutes, 256B.0659, subdivisions 20 and 28.

When the PCA Choice box is checked on a PCA Assessment and Service Plan (DHS-3244) (PDF), the assessor has indicated that the person being assessed might be interested in the PCA Choice model and that model would be an appropriate choice to offer to the participant.

No. All PCA Choice agencies and FMS providers must remain neutral on the question of whether workers should join the union. Direct workers who have questions about union membership to contact SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa at 651-294-8100 or SEIUhomecare@seiuhcmn.org.

No. All PCA Choice agencies and FMS providers must refrain from any activities that might encourage or interfere with, or be perceived as encouraging or interfering with, union decertification efforts. If you receive questions about a decertification process, direct them to the Bureau of Mediation Services (BMS) at 651-649-5421.

Yes, if you have an orientation for workers who provide direct support services in PCA Choice, CDCS, or CSG, you must provide those workers with union membership applications and union orientation materials. SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa will provide those materials to you.

Call SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa at 651-294-8100 or email SEIUhomecare@seiuhcmn.org.

No. Not all members of the bargaining unit are members of the union. Collect dues only from workers who choose to join the union.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa will inform your organization in writing if a worker joins the union at least 10 days before the beginning of the pay period from which dues deductions should be taken. You do not need a written authorization from the worker to deduct dues. The notice from SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa is the only authorization required.

Union members established a 3% dues rate. The maximum amount of dues that can be deducted per pay period is $36.00. Deduct 3% of gross wages for the pay period, but no more than the maximum amount, and remit them to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa. Identify on your remittance to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa which workers the deductions were taken from and for which pay period.

Dues must be remitted to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa within 10 days after you make the deduction from the worker’s paycheck. Include an itemized statement with the remittance.

SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa will provide you with 10 days’ notice of any membership cancellations. Continue to take dues deductions from union members until you receive a membership cancellation notice from SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa. Direct workers who have questions about union membership to SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa at 651-294-8100 or SEIUhomecare@seiuhcmn.org.

Workers accrue one hour of PTO for every 30 hours they provide direct support in PCA Choice, CDCS or CSG. For each pay period, take the total number of hours worked providing services for a participant in PCA Choice, CDCS or CSG and divide that number by 30 to determine the total amount of PTO earned for that pay period. Round PTO to the nearest hundredth. The PCA Choice-CDCS-CSG-Reporting Spreadsheet (XLS) has a formula embedded which will automatically calculate the per pay period PTO accrual rate.

No. As of July 1, 2023, a worker no longer needs to meet a threshold requirement to use their PTO.

In CDCS and CSG, bill PTO against the participant’s budget as it is accrued for hours of service provided to the participant. Similarly, for PCA Choice agencies, set aside a portion of the reimbursement rate for PTO as it is accrued.

Workers may carry over up to 80 hours of unused PTO from one fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) to the next.

Yes. The 2024 Minnesota Legislature granted workers in Consumer Directed Community Supports (CDCS) and Consumer Support Grant (CSG) the option to waive their right to paid time off (PTO) by amending the sick and safe leave law through 2024 Minnesota Session Laws, chapter 127, article 11, section 15. The following lists the changes to the law effective May 25, 2024:

• Employees who are family members of people using CDCS or CSG can waive PTO effective May 25, 2024, under the collective bargaining agreement.  "Family member” is defined in the earned sick and safe time law. (Employees were not allowed to waive PTO between Jan. 1, 2024, and May 25, 2024.)
• CDCS and CSG workers must follow their FMS provider’s policies if they want to start waiving PTO.
• Once a direct support worker has waived PTO, they may not accrue earned sick and safe time until the start of the next service plan year.

You must pay the worker the unused PTO the worker has earned, up to 80 hours.

Pay the worker the same wage rate for PTO that you pay the worker for the hours they work with each participant who is approving the time off. For example, if a worker normally earns $19 per hour for each hour worked, they would earn $19 for each hour of PTO.

A worker must obtain the consent of the participant to use PTO. The worker should obtain consent in writing.

Workers should obtain permission from each participant for whom they were scheduled to work during the period in which they want to take PTO.

If a worker has accrued PTO to use and is not working because the participant is in the hospital and cannot receive services, the worker can use the PTO the worker has accrued.

No. Time taken as PTO does not count against the 40-hour limitation.

Yes. Hours of PTO are not included in the calculation of PCA hours of service provided in a month.

Record PTO in columns O, P and Q on the PCA Choice-CDCS-CSG-Reporting Spreadsheet (XLS). Use the notes field to indicate when a worker’s gross pay includes pay for PTO used in that pay period.

No.

A worker can take PTO in increments of 15 minutes.

Yes. All workers in the bargaining unit must receive the benefits guaranteed in the labor agreement. The agency or FMS may offer a worker benefits that are greater than the standards set by the collective bargaining agreement.

All workers in the bargaining unit must be paid at 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for hours they worked on New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. This rate cannot be reduced for any reason. 

Yes. Some participants may need additional hours of service beyond their usual hours during a holiday. PCA services are allowed to be used flexibly by participants to meet their covered service needs.

Yes, PCA provider agencies may establish a holiday staffing policy that may include a limit on the number of hours of service a participant can expect from the agency on a holiday. An agency’s holiday staffing policy should include an exception process to allow for additional staffing if required by the needs of the participant.

Agencies should notify participants of their holiday staffing policy at the initial service planning visit as with any limitation in services. For an agency who is just now developing its holiday staffing policy, before you implement the new policy: you must notify participants about the new policy and work with them to develop holiday staffing plans.

Effective July 1, 2023, all workers in the bargaining unit no longer have two floating holidays to use each fiscal year of the agreement.

Training about contract compliance is available on the Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) Home and community-based services providers page. You can email additional questions to dhs.dsd.fi.techhelp@state.mn.us.