§ 255 — Home Health Services

(1) For the purpose of encouraging the establishment and initial operation of home health programs to provide home health services in areas in which such services are inadequate or not readily accessible, the Secretary may, in accordance with the provisions of this section, make grants to public and nonprofit private entities and loans to proprietary entities to meet the initial costs of establishing and operating such home health programs. Such grants and loans may include funds to provide training for paraprofessionals (including homemaker home health aides) to provide home health services. (2) In making grants and loans under this subsection, the Secretary shall— (A) consider the relative needs of the several States for home health services; (B) give preference to areas in which a high percentage of the population proposed to be served is composed of individuals who are elderly, medically indigent, or disabled; and (C) give special consideration to areas with inadequate means of transportation to obtain necessary health services. (A) No loan may be made to a proprietary entity under this section unless the application of such entity for such loan contains assurances satisfactory to the Secretary that— (i) at the time the application is made the entity is fiscally sound; (ii) the entity is unable to secure a loan for the project for which the application is submitted from non-Federal lenders at the rate of interest prevailing in the area in which the entity is located; and (iii) during the period of the loan, such entity will remain fiscally sound. (B) Loans under this section shall be made at an interest rate comparable to the rate of interest prevailing on the date the loan is made with respect to the marketable obligations of the United States of comparable maturities, adjusted to provide for administrative costs. (4) Applications for grants and loans under this subsection shall be in such form and contain such information as the Secretary shall prescribe. (5) There are authorized to be appropriated for grants and loans under this subsection $5,000,000 for each of the fiscal years ending on September 30, 1983, September 30, 1984, September 30, 1985, September 30, 1986, and September 30, 1987. (1) The Secretary may make grants to and enter into contracts with public and private entities to assist them in developing appropriate training programs for paraprofessionals (including homemaker home health aides) to provide home health services. (2) Any program established with a grant or contract under this subsection to train homemaker home health aides shall— (A) extend for at least forty hours, and consist of classroom instruction and at least twenty hours (in the aggregate) of supervised clinical instruction directed toward preparing students to deliver home health services; (B) be carried out under appropriate professional supervision and be designed to train students to maintain or enhance the personal care of an individual in his home in a manner which promotes the functional independence of the individual; and (C) include training in— (i) personal care services designed to assist an individual in the activities of daily living such as bathing, exercising, personal grooming, and getting in and out of bed; and (ii) household care services such as maintaining a safe living environment, light housekeeping, and assisting in providing good nutrition (by the purchasing and preparation of food). (3) In making grants and entering into contracts under this subsection, special consideration shall be given to entities which establish or will establish programs to provide training for persons fifty years of age and older who wish to become paraprofessionals (including homemaker home health aides) to provide home health services. (4) Applications for grants and contracts under this subsection shall be in such form and contain such information as the Secretary shall prescribe. (5) There are authorized to be appropriated for grants and contracts under this subsection $2,000,000 for each of the fiscal years ending September 30, 1983, September 30, 1984, September 30, 1985, September 30, 1986, and September 30, 1987. (c) The Secretary shall report to the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives on or before January 1, 1984, with respect to— (1) the impact of grants made and contracts entered into under subsections (a) and (b) (as such subsections were in effect prior to October 1, 1981); (2) the need to continue grants and loans under subsections (a) and (b) (as such subsections are in effect on the day after January 4, 1983); and (3) the extent to which standards have been applied to the training of personnel who provide home health services. (d) For purposes of this section, the term “home health services” has the meaning prescribed for the term by section 1395x(m) of this title.