PERS for Home and Community-Based Services

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has recently issued Bulletin #13-25-04 about authorization for Personal Emergency Response Services (PERS) for home and community-based services waivers, alternative care and Moving Home Minnesota.

Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS) and other remote support and telehealth technologies have evolved significantly in the past several years. These advances afford participants more choice over where they live and how they receive support. Controlled access to data over the Internet coupled with smart technologies provides greater opportunity for consumers to select supportive technologies independent of other service providers.

The community alternatives for disabled individuals (CADI) and brain injury (BI) home- and community-based services (HCBS) waivers were recently renewed and amendments were approved for all four disability waivers. This bulletin incorporates agreements reached with CMS regarding the use of technology covered as waiver services.

Providers of health services must enroll as a provider of one or more state plan services and must meet applicable provider standards. In those instances where the remote monitoring includes services covered by both the state plan and an HCBS waiver, providers must meet applicable standards for services provided and lead agencies must assure that costs related to the system are appropriately authorized and billed to the correct payer.