DHS Announces
Employee Scholarship Program Changes for 2015
I. Introduction
The purpose of this guidance is to inform interested parties of changes made to expand the DHS Nursing Facility Employee Scholarship Program during the 2015 legislative session and to provide details on how DHS will be implementing these changes.
II. Scholarship Program Changes to be Implemented
The following guidance is offered for nursing facilities implementing these changes.
A. Work Requirement
The average weekly work requirement for scholarship recipients has been reduced from an average of 20 to 10 hours per week.
To be eligible to receive scholarship monies, employees must work the required 10 hour average per week in the nursing facility during the period covered by the scholarship.
How to determine the average hours worked: For the period of time during which the employee is attending classes or training, the employee must work a minimum average of 10 hours per week, 20 hours per bi-weekly period or 130 hours per calendar quarter while in training. These hours can be pro-rated for partial periods of time (i.e. in school for part of one session and part of another session).
NOTE: The 10 hour average weekly work requirement does not apply to scholarships being granted to cover reimbursement for nurse aide expenses
B. Eligible Individuals
Scholarship program eligibility has been expanded to cover Registered Nurses (RNs) and Department Supervisors/Managers within the facility. Other program requirements remain the same (i.e. individuals must meet the average hourly work requirement, only eligible expenses can be reimbursed, etc.).
NOTE: Facility Administrators remain ineligible to participate in the DHS Employee Scholarship program.
C. Eligible Expenses - Transportation
The scholarship program has been expanded to cover reasonable costs (as determined by the Department), for childcare and transportation.
To be eligible for coverage under the scholarship program, transportation costs must:
· relate directly to the education and/or training covered by the scholarship awarded (e.g. costs related to transportation to/from training, education or testing sites on days that the individual is engaged in these activities). Reimbursable transportation costs do not include costs of automobile maintenance (i.e. oil, fluids, car repairs or other maintenance costs).
· be documented by the employee (i.e. a mileage log, receipts for bus fare, etc.)
· not exceed a reasonable amount (as determined by the Department). Transportation costs include, but are not necessarily limited to; mileage, bus fare, and parking fees.
Mileage costs are capped at the annual IRS mileage rate for business related travel (this changes annually, but is currently set at 57.5 cents/mile).
D. Eligible Expenses – Child Care
To be eligible for coverage under the scholarship program, child care expenses must:
· relate directly to the education and/or training covered by the scholarship (e.g. child care costs incurred during the period of time that the individual pursues training, education or testing covered by the scholarship award). Child care costs are not covered for any period of time that the employee is receiving wages. Child care costs that are unreasonable may be disallowed by the Department.
· be documented by the employee, and should include a detail statement of costs incurred (signed by the child care provider).
· cover only children the employee is legally responsible for (i.e. child, adopted child, stepchild, etc.)
· not exceed a reasonable amount (as determined by the Department). Child care costs include, but are not necessarily limited to; the hourly, daily or weekly rate charged by a child care provider.
The Department has set a ceiling for child care costs that can be reimbursed under the scholarship program. Child care costs reimbursed cannot exceed the lower of actual documented costs or the prevailing hourly wage for a commercial child care provider in the local area.
Child care costs exclude those items that would normally be provided to a child whether or not the child was in day care (e.g. no separate reimbursement will be made for items such as diapers, food, etc.).
For facility convenience, sample transportation and child care logs have been posted on our website. Nursing facilities are not obligated to utilize these particular forms, but should use some form of documentation that clearly provides all the required information. This information should be retained as part of each scholarship file, in case of audit.
E. Reimbursement of Student Loan Expenses
The employee scholarship program will now provide for reimbursement of student loan expenses incurred while completing a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) or Registered Nurse (RN) degree program, for newly hired and recently graduated LPNs and RNs.
“Expenses” include the periodic required minimum loan payments due while employed by the facility, but not loan balances due.
DHS will recognize as an allowable scholarship, reimbursement of the monthly, quarterly or annual payments of student loan expenses by the facility (up to the actual expenses for the period being reimbursed). These expenses are covered under the scholarship program only for the period of time an eligible LPN or RN is employed by the facility. For example: Employee A is a recently hired, newly graduated RN. She has a monthly student loan payment due of $ 450.00. The facility could reimburse this periodic student loan payment of $ 450.00 each month, on a quarterly basis ($ 1,350.00) or on an annual basis ($ 5,400.00) – for the period of time the RN is employed by the facility.
For the purposes of the scholarship program, “newly hired” is defined as an individual hired within the last 12 calendar months. “Recently graduated” is defined as having graduated within 12 calendar months prior to being offered a job with the facility.
F. Reimbursement of Nurse Aide Costs
Under both federal and state law, nursing facilities are required under certain circumstances to reimburse the costs of nurse aide training, testing and associated costs, to the nurse aide. The employee scholarship program will now provide for facility reimbursement in whole of these costs for newly hired and recently graduated nurse aides. The items eligible for nurse aide reimbursement as well as required documentation, have not changed.
NOTE: Individuals granted scholarships to cover reimbursement of eligible nurse aide expenses are not required to meet the hourly weekly work requirement (see Item A).
For the purposes of the scholarship program, “newly hired” is defined as an individual hired within the last 12 calendar months. “Recently graduated” is defined as having graduated from nurse aide program within 12 calendar months prior to being offered a job with the facility.
G. Start-up Monies Provided
Nursing facilities not currently participating in the employee scholarship program may request, for the period beginning 10/1/15 through 12/31/17, a scholarship per diem of up to 25 cents to be used exclusively to cover eligible scholarship program costs.
Monies not utilized to provide employee scholarships will be recouped from the facility at a later date.
Facilities that wish to begin participation in the scholarship program and receive the seed monies ($ .25 cents/resident day) may send a request to Munna Yasiri by email.
H. Rate Adjustment for Closing Beds
Nursing facilities that close beds during the rate year (when the resulting rate adjustment equals $ 0.15 per diem or greater), may request a recalculation of the scholarship per diem for the remainder of the rate year, to reflect the reduction in resident days.
Facilities closing beds that wish to have their scholarship per diem recalculated, may send an email request to Munna Yasiri. This email should indicate the number of beds being closed and the effective date of the closure of the beds.
I. Training and Support
The Department will make training available on these program changes. Facilities that would like to schedule training or consult on issues related to the Scholarship program, please contact Munna Yasiri.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) will also be posted on the Scholarship webpage outlining the 2015 changes.
References
Minnesota Statutes, section 256B.431, subd. 36
Laws of Minnesota 2015, chapter 71, article 6, section 8
Staff Contact
Munna Yasiri
Compliance & Intergovernmental Relations Director
PO Box 64973
St Paul, MN 5564-0973
(651) 431-2264
Revised: 9/3/15