The Department of Health recently issued an update regarding home care aides/long term care workers, applicable to assisted living, adult family home and home care employees. Note the effective date of some of the changes was Sunday, July 28.
During
the 2013 legislative session, the Washington State Legislature enacted
Substitute House Bill 1381, which extends the time a long-term care worker can
work without having the home care aide certification and allows a provisional
home care aide certification for long-term care workers who are limited English
proficient. This law goes into effect on July 28, 2013.
Extension
of Time:
Currently,
long-term care workers have 150 days from their date of hire to obtain a home
care aide certification. Beginning July 28, 2013, long-term care workers
will have 200 days from the date of hire to obtain the home care aide
certification. This means that if 7/28/13 is a long-term care worker’s
150th day or if the long-term care worker is within your 150 days of
their first day of hire, they are automatically extended to 200 days. If the long-term care worker has already
been instructed to stop providing care because their hire date was prior to
March 1, 2013- this extension to 200 days does not apply.
Provisional
Home Care Aide Certification:
1)
The
new law defines limited English proficient as an individual who is limited in
his or her ability to read, write, or speak English. A new application is
available on the Department of Health web-site. This application allows a
new applicant to also apply for the provisional certification by checking the
box. All applicants need to use the new application even if they are not
applying for the provisional certification. The new application is at the
following web-site:
http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/675002.pdf
The provisional certification is only
good for 60 days after the expiration of the 200 day deadline, there is no fee
required, it is not renewable and can be issued only once. It will be a
separate credential on provider credential search and once issued they will
receive a separate license in the mail with a different license number than
their home care aide certification.
2)
If a long-term care worker who is limited English proficient
has already submitted an application and would like the provisional
certification, they need to complete and submit a one page supplemental form
for the provisional certification. The form is at the following web-site:
http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/Pubs/675008.pdf
If
you have questions regarding the application process, please contact the
credentialing section at (360) 236-2700.
EXAMINATION
APPLICATION:
1) The Department of Health
is aware that applicants, employers and trainers, who
are trying to reach our examination vendor, Prometric, are currently
experiencing longer-than-normal wait times. This is due to moving their
customer service center from Minnesota to Maryland, as there were some
unexpected fallouts.
·
Prometric
is working to bring the wait times back to normal as soon as possible. If
you find you are waiting a very long time on the phone, please either call back
at a later time or e-mail Prometric at WAHCA@prometric.com.
·
You
can help by assuring that you, your employees or your students are submitting
the current examination application form and that you are sending it to the
correct address in Maryland. Applications sent to the incorrect address are
rerouted and take more time to reach the Customer Service Center. More
calls are received as a result of this time-lag. The correct address is Prometric,
Attn: Washington Home Care Aide Program, 7941 Corporate Dr., Nottingham,
MD 21236. Current applications are available at the Prometric
web-site:
2) Be sure long-term care workers
are submitting their applications as soon as possible. At this time,
long-term care workers are allowed to submit an examination application as soon
as they know the end date for their training program. We are aware
of applications that are received by Prometric 60 days after the long-term care
worker has finished their training. Applying early will mean that the
worker will have an earlier examination date, the information they received
during training will be fresh and they will have an easier time meeting their
deadline.
3) Be sure long-term care
workers are looking at the list of available
testing sites. A new testing location opened in Yakima on June 1,
2013 and there is now a new testing site available in Tacoma. A
list of testing locations are available at the following web-site:
