AR SB468

Establishes a separate licensure category for private care agencies providing 24-hour, 7-day-a-week personal care services.

Requires qualified supervisors to establish in-person visit frequency based on patient needs and registered nurse recommendations, with a minimum of annual visits; allows supervisors to be either licensed nurses or individuals with 2 years of higher education (or equivalent work experience).

Eliminates the requirement that registered nurses visit patients every 62 days for supervision and removes the one-hundred-mile radius requirement for private care agency branch offices and home healthcare services agency offices providing unskilled services.

Requires private care agencies to maintain a primary location in Arkansas and sufficient regional offices to adequately serve administrative and patient needs.

Creates an Advisory Private Care Agency and Home Healthcare Services Agency Rule Working Group to review rules and provide recommendations to the Department of Health by November 1, 2019, with the group expiring on that date.