Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 101 CMR - EXECUTIVE OFFICE FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › Title 101 CMR 411.00 - Rates for Certain Placement, Support, and Shared Living Services › Section 411.02 - Definitions

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
As used in
				101 CMR 411.00, unless the
				context requires otherwise, terms have the meanings in 101 CMR 411.02.
Add-on Rate
. A rate that is intended
				to provide an additional, necessary service not included in the current
				programmatic model, which will be instituted at the discretion of the
				purchasing governmental unit.
Adoption Management Support Services
				(AMSS)
. Services that address specific client needs and provide
				specific services or full case management. Examples of AMSS include a
				provider's recruitment of an adoptive family for a specific child, the
				assessment of a child for adoption, the training and home study of prospective
				adoptive families, and the management of pre-adoptive homes. Purchasing
				governmental unit requests for responses contain specific definitions of AMSS.
				There are specific rates that are determined by the child's needs (mild,
				moderate, severe), or the placement of a specific number of siblings with the
				child in an adoptive family.
Child Home-based Rehabilitation
. An
				IFC Other Model that provides IFC Placement and specialized, intensive foster
				care services for children with problem sexualized behavior and sexually
				abusive youth. In addition to placement in specially trained, intensive foster
				care homes, youth receive intensive case management, clinical, psychiatric,
				psychopharmacological, health care, educational, and recreational services
				supported by 24-hour per day, seven days per week emergency coverage.
Client
. An individual who receives
				placement, support, and shared living services purchased by a governmental
				unit.
Community-based Alternative to
				Detention
. Services that are an alternative to the juvenile locked
				secure detention component of the juvenile justice system.
Community-based Alternative to Detention Bed
				Hold
. Services to retain Community-based Alternative to Detention
				caregivers while a Community-based Alternative to Detention bed is
				unoccupied.
Complex Medical Foster Care
. A foster
				care program that is designed to provide care and treatment supports to
				children and youth who have medically complex or unstable conditions and
				require intensive medical care management and coordination. Care often involves
				multiple medical specialists.
Cost Report
. The document used to
				report costs and other financial and statistical data. The Uniform Financial
				Statements and Independent Auditor's Report (UFR) is used when required.
Emergency Shelter Homes
. An IFC Other
				Model that provides IFC placement for children from birth through 22 years of
				age for a duration not to exceed 45 days. IFC emergency foster care providers
				are responsible for facilitating emergency health care, emergency school
				placement, intensive family work to support reunification, and collaboration
				with community providers that have preexisting relationships with youth
				placed.
Enhanced Intensive Foster Care (EIFC)
.
				Services provided to a client at a higher level of intensity in accordance with
				specifications determined by the purchasing governmental unit.
EOHHS
. The Executive Office of Health
				and Human Services established under M.G.L. c. 6A.
Family Residential Homes
. Licensed
				foster homes with expertise sufficiently compatible with IFC Level One clients,
				where the caregiver is considered an employee of the agency and up to six IFC
				clients can reside within the same home.
Governmental Unit
. The Commonwealth,
				any board, commission, department, division, or agency of the Commonwealth, and
				any political subdivision of the Commonwealth.
IFC Level One Homes
. Licensed foster
				homes with expertise sufficient to meet the needs of children and youth
				referred for nonspecialized Intensive Foster Care.
IFC Level Two Homes
. Licensed foster
				homes with expertise compatible with IFC Level One where caregivers have
				additional applicable training and extensive previous foster home
				experience.
Individual Consideration (I.C)
.
				Payment rates for certain services are designated as individual consideration
				(I.C.). Where I.C. rates are designated, the purchasing governmental unit will
				determine the appropriate payment as the actual cost of the item or service as
				evidenced by invoice, published tuition amount, or other price reasonably
				obtained by a competitive market for the product or service.
Intensive Foster Care (IFC)
. Programs
				that provide therapeutic services and supports in a family-based placement
				setting to children and youth, from birth through 22 years of age, for whom a
				traditional foster care environment is not sufficiently supportive; who are
				transitioning from a residential/group home level of care and require the
				intensity of services available through this program; or who are discharging
				from a hospital setting. Referred children and youth come from diverse
				cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic, or racial backgrounds and have varying
				sexual or gender orientations. They may have a range of behavioral, cognitive,
				and mental health strengths and needs. With the appropriate program strengths,
				safety planning, and supports, this range for IFC could include children with
				fire-setting, sexual offending and sexual reactive behaviors, or various
				medical needs. Ideally, and when appropriate, children remain in their
				communities, attend their school of origin, maintain their social network, and
				continue contact with their families. Some are teenage mothers who need support
				and guidance with their parenting skills.
Intensive Foster Care Other Models (IFC Other
				Models)
. Service models designed to meet the unique challenges
				that face a specialized population of foster care children and youth. These
				models represent an array of service requirements and program designs specified
				by the purchasing governmental unit.
Multiple Acute A
. An IFC Other Model
				consisting of therapeutic foster care providing placement services that meet a
				combination of substantial medical, psychiatric, and cognitive needs of youth
				and their families. The placement population is more challenging than the
				children typically placed into IFC. It provides placement supports and family
				services that are specially designed to meet the complex challenges of children
				who have been abused and neglected and present with cognitive and physical
				impairments. Children and youth may also exhibit one or both of the following:
				a range of behavioral or emotional needs; or a wide range of disabilities
				including developmental disabilities, psychiatric disorders, chronic illnesses,
				and severe physical impairments.
Multiple Acute B
. An IFC Other Model
				consisting of therapeutic foster care providing placement services that meet a
				combination of substantial medical, psychiatric, and cognitive needs of youth
				and their families. The placement population is more challenging than the
				children and youth typically placed into IFC. It provides placement supports
				and family services that are specially designed to meet the complex challenges
				of children and youth who have been abused and neglected and present with
				cognitive and physical impairments. These children and youth may also exhibit
				one or both of the following: a range of behavioral or emotional needs; or a
				wide range of disabilities including developmental disabilities, psychiatric
				disorders, chronic illnesses, and severe physical impairments. Additionally, it
				provides transportation and housing for children needing wheelchair
				accessibility.
Multiple Foster Parent Support
				Services
. Services that represent a diverse set of services
				designed to support DCF foster parents. These services include trainings (pre-
				and post-approval), respite services, a helpline for weekends and after hours,
				emergency child care, a family resource liaison service (foster parents helping
				other foster parents), foster parent membership services, and satisfaction
				surveys shared with DCF.
Multiple Pre-adoption Services
.
				Services that encompass a variety of adoption-related services, primarily a
				comprehensive recruitment effort for potential adoptive families. Other
				services include the provision of a central statewide clearing house for
				adoption information and referral, and events that facilitate the
				identification of new families and matches between children and approved
				families.
Multiple Post-adoption Services
. A
				diverse set of services that are intended to provide a statewide program
				available to adoptive families in Massachusetts. The focus is on support and
				preservation services following the adoption. The services include family
				support groups (for the children or adoptive parents), respite services (an
				approved caregiver provides short term supervision of a child for the adoptive
				parents), support for families, therapeutic intervention through regional
				response teams trained to handle crises, and training for teachers, social
				workers, and mental health providers who work with adopted individuals and
				their families.
One-time Resource Purchase
.
				Reimbursement to a provider for supplying a licensed pre-adoptive family with
				whom a child or sibling group has been placed. Payment is made after 60 days of
				placement. Payment is made when the responsibility for the operation of the
				provider's home on behalf of the child or sibling group is transferred to DCF
				for payment authorization of the adoption or guardianship subsidy. DCF makes a
				one-time product payment for the recruitment, home study, and use of a foster
				home, based on the same rate as AMSS Purchase of Home. The payment is made on
				successful completion of the foster home's six-month probationary period. No
				payment is made when the new home is a former DCF home.
Operational Service
. The portion of
				the complete IFC or Shared Living service that reflects the various caregiver
				support services specified by the purchaser including, but not limited to,
				therapeutic services contributing to successful placement for a client. These
				rates are separate from caregiver stipends.
Provider
. Any individual, group,
				partnership, trust, corporation, or other legal entity that offers services for
				purchase by a governmental unit and that meets the conditions of purchase or
				licensure that have been adopted by a purchasing governmental unit.
Reporting Year
. The provider's fiscal
				year for which costs incurred are reported to the Operational Services Division
				on the UFR.
Sexually Exploited Youth Services
. An
				IFC Other Model consisting of placement services provided for the child welfare
				service needs of sexually exploited children including, but not limited to,
				services for sexually exploited children residing in the Commonwealth at the
				time they are taken into custody by law enforcement or who are identified by
				DCF or DYS as sexually exploited children. These services are provided for the
				duration of any legal or administrative proceeding in which they are either the
				complaining witness, the defendant, or the subject child. This includes
				appropriate services provided to a child reasonably believed to be a sexually
				exploited child in order to safeguard the child's welfare.
Shared Living
. Programs that provide
				recruitment, placement, training, resources for clinical or behavioral
				consultative services, and oversight of caregivers and living situations for
				individuals who either live in the home of a designated care provider or live
				in their own homes with a designated care provider. These services are provided
				in one of three levels of intensity that are characterized by increasing levels
				of supervision and support to the caregiver by the contracting organization.
				Designated care providers are responsible for providing supervision and ongoing
				support in areas of daily living, maintaining optimal health care, creating and
				enhancing relationships with chosen family members and friends, and other areas
				of assistance specified in individuals' ISPs. Caregivers are paid a stipend and
				additional paid staff hours may be provided to augment the supports necessary
				to sustain an individual in the placement.
Sibling Rate
. The payment for a
				client's sibling who does not need IFC services, but is placed in an IFC home
				in order to stay with a brother or sister who requires IFC-level
				services.
Stipend
. Compensation paid to a
				caregiver for providing personal care services to an eligible client residing
				either in the caregiver's home or in the client's own home. For Shared Living
				services stipend rates and related information,
see
101 CMR
				411.03(4)(b)4.b.
Teen Parent Rate
. The payment for the
				placement of a teen and the teen's child in an IFC home. The payment of the
				teen parent IFC rate is made only when both the teen and the teen's child are
				in the care or custody of DCF or DYS.
Transitions to Adult Services
. An IFC
				Other Model involving IFC and the intensive support services package for
				children, youth, and adolescents leaving residential schools who have special
				cognitive, language, and behavioral needs. These individuals may have received
				diagnoses such as severe learning disabilities or developmental disabilities.
				This program seeks to find foster families who are committed to providing
				permanent homes that will eventually be funded under adult foster care, and who
				are able to implement highly technical behavioral treatment plans and use
				augmentative communication strategies in order to achieve safety and stability
				within the community.
Transitions to Adulthood Services
. An
				IFC Other Model that provides IFC foster care services to young adults 18
				through 22 years of age, assisting them in transitioning to adulthood, in order
				to assist the participants to develop lifelong family connections while gaining
				skills to lead self-sufficient, healthy, productive, and responsible adult
				lives. The program uses a Positive Youth Development Approach that focuses on
				safety, relationship building, youth participation, skill building, and
				community involvement and a team approach that includes the participant, the
				caregiver, and community professionals.
Youth Permanency Connections
. A
				service that addresses the core need of helping youth who are transitioning
				from structured settings (residential, group home, foster care) toward
				independent living, by identifying committed responsible adults to help ensure
				the transitioning youth's success. The model focuses on identifying positive
				adults, connecting them with youth, and providing the youth with training and
				support, including youth support groups. Promoting permanency through task and
				goal-setting is a core principal, and regular team meetings (youth, adults,
				collateral individuals) are an integral component of the program. This service
				is established on a
per diem
rate basis.