Paid Leave Starts January 1
Is your agency prepared for the new Minnesota Paid Leave?
Paid Leave is a required program that provides payments and job protections to people who need time away from work for their own health or to care for a family member. It is comprised of Medical Leave and Family Leave. Employers and employees will contribute to the program and the state pays employees directly when they utilize that benefit.
The contribution to Paid Leave is .88% for large organizations and .66% for small employers that employ 30 or fewer people and have an average employee wage of less than 150% of the statewide average weekly wage ($1,423). Employees will contribute .44% of the premium, unless organizations are able to cover a portion of that.
The important steps you need to take at this time are included on a checklist:
• Set up a Paid Leave account and set up a Paid Leave administrator on the Minnesota Unemployment Insurance website.
• Contact your payroll company to ensure they are prepared for this new plan.
o Confirm that they will submit reports the state (if they currently submit the UI report, they should be prepared
for this).
o Clarify how the premiums will be collected, through your current payroll system or another method.
• Display the official Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) poster in English and in any language spoken by five or more employees before December 1, 2025.
• Prepare and send individual notifications to each employee with the premium breakdown. A sample notification can be accessed from the checklist linked above.
• A Paid Leave calculator is available online.
• Establish and communicate a policy for your organization.
There is a Frequently Asked Questions page online. For additional information, email Paidleave@state.mn.us, available at 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday (except state holidays) or can be reached at 651-556-7777 or 844-556-0444 (toll-free).
PCA/CFSS Payments May Be Delayed Beginning December
Governor Tim Walz announced on October 29 that he has ordered a third-party audit of billing for 14 high-risk Medicaid services, including Personal Care Assistance/Community First Services and Supports. This means that beginning in December, funding for PCA and CFSS services will be paused for up to 90 days in the interest of detecting suspicious billing activity and scrutinizing the use of public funds. The MHCA will keep members posted on updates.
With funding approved during the 2025 legislative session, the Department of Human Services (DHS) has partnered with Optum to analyze Medicaid fee-for-service claims data and flag potential concerns for DHS review. Optum will identify irregularities such as missing documentation, unusually high billing patterns, or inconsistencies that suggest a claim may not meet program requirements.
The 14 affected Medicaid services identified as high-risk by the Human Services Department based on programmatic vulnerabilities, evidence of fraudulent activity, and data analytics indicating potentially suspicious patterns, claim anomalies, or outliers. The total affected services are as follows: Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention services for autism, Integrated Community Supports, Nonemergency Medical Transportation, Peer Recovery Services, Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services, Adult Day Services, Personal Care Assistance/Community First Services and Supports, Recuperative Care, Individualized Home Supports, Adult Companion Services, Night Supervision, Assertive Community Treatment, Intensive Residential Treatment Services, and Housing Stabilization Services.
DHS Requests Public Comments on Disability Waiver Plan Amendments
The DHS announces a period for public comments on amendments to the Community Alternative Care (CAC), Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI), and Developmental Disabilities (DD) waiver plans before they are submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The public comment period began October 23 and will end at 4pm on Friday, November 21. You can submit your comments to DSD.PublicComments@state.mn.us.
More information on the proposed amendments and submitting comments is available here.
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