Current through Pa Acts 2024-53, 2024-56 through 2024-92
Section 102-J - Department of human services.(a) Hospital qualified staff retention and recruitment payments.--From money appropriated to the Department of Human Services under subsection (e)(1), $100,000,000 shall be used for making payments to hospitals for making retention and recruitment payments to qualified staff, which shall be distributed as one-time payments to each hospital, determined as follows: (1) Divide: (i) The number of a hospital's licensed beds as of December 30, 2021, as determined in consultation with the Department of Health; by(ii) The total licensed hospital beds as of December 30, 2021, as determined in consultation with the Department of Health.(2) Multiply: (i) The quotient under paragraph (1); by(b) Other qualified staff retention and recruitment payments.--From money appropriated to the Department of Human Services under subsection (e)(2), $110,000,000 shall be used for making payments to behavioral health providers, critical access hospitals and high medical assistance hospitals for staff retention and recruitment payments to qualified staff, which shall be distributed as one-time payments to each behavioral health provider, critical access hospital and high medical assistance hospital, determined as follows:(1) Divide: (i) The unduplicated number of the licensed beds of a behavioral health provider, critical access hospital or high medical assistance hospital as of December 30, 2021, as determined in consultation with the Department of Health; by(ii) The unduplicated total licensed beds of all behavioral health providers, critical access hospitals and high medical assistance hospitals as of December 30, 2021, as determined in consultation with the Department of Health.(2) Multiply: (i) The quotient under paragraph (1); by(c) Conditions.--The following apply to receipt of payments received under this section: (1) A payment received from the Department of Human Services under this section may not supplant existing staff wages and may not otherwise be reimbursed by Federal or State funding.(1.1) A qualified staff member may only receive one payment for retention or recruitment under this section.(2) An entity receiving a payment from the Department of Human Services under this section must be in operation as of December 30, 2021, and must maintain operations until at least December 31, 2022.(3) An entity receiving a payment from the Department of Human Services under this section shall spend the funds by the following deadlines:(i) Staff retention payments under subsections (a) and (b) shall be made within 90 days of receipt of payment.(ii) Staff recruitment payments under subsections (a) and (b) shall be made within 180 days of receipt of payment.(4) An entity receiving a payment from the Department of Human Services under this section shall submit a report, in a form and manner as prescribed by the Department of Human Services, as follows: (i) An entity receiving a payment from the department under subsections (a) and (b) shall submit a report to the department by: (A) September 30, 2022, regarding staff retention payments.(B) December 31, 2022, regarding staff recruitment payments.(ii) A report under this paragraph shall include the following information:(A) The number of staff payments or bonuses, including any additional retention and recruitment incentives, regardless of funding source.(B) The ratio of permanent staff to contracted agency/temporary staff as of December 30, 2021, versus that ratio as of the submission date of the report.(C) The amount of a staff payment or bonus per employee, including the total number of each type of payment or bonus.(D) The types or classification of employees that received a bonus or payment.(E) The criteria used for determining a staff payment or bonus, including whether and how staff were engaged in the determination.(F) The plan for recruitment and retention through December 31, 2023.(G) The number of the employees who received a bonus or payment, including the number of employees who received a bonus or payment and are still employed at the facility on the submission date of the report.(H) Any other criteria required by Federal or State law or guidance.(5) The Department of Human Services may recover a payment from an entity that receives payment from the department under this section if the entity does not comply with the provisions of this section or with Federal or State law or guidance. An entity that receives a payment from the department under this section shall provide documents, records and other information related to a payment made under this section in the time, manner and format requested by either the Department of Human Services or by any other Commonwealth or federal agency that is authorized to audit the payments.(d)Report.--Within 90 days of the reporting deadlines under subsection (c), the Department of Human Services, in consultation with the Department of Health, shall issue a report to the chairperson and minority chairperson of the Appropriations Committee of the Senate and the chairperson and minority chairperson of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives regarding the aggregate employee bonus and payment information received under subsection (c). The report shall be posted to the Department of Human Services' publicly accessible internet website. The publicly available report may not include any proprietary recruitment and retention plan information.(e) Appropriation.--The following federal amounts are appropriated on a continuing basis from the COVID-19 response restricted account to the Department of Human Services: (1) The sum of $100,000,000 is appropriated to the Department of Human Services for COVID relief - hospital workforce assistance in accordance with this section.(2) The sum of $110,000,000 is appropriated to the Department of Human Services for COVID relief - healthcare workforce assistance in accordance with this section.Added by P.L. TBD 2022 No. 2, § 2, eff. 1/26/2022.