Senate Bill No. 650
(By Senators Kessler and Wells)
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[Introduced February 22, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Health and Human Resources.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §9-2-6a of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to developing caseload standards
for the Department of Health and Human Resources program
areas; requiring the proposal of rules for legislative
approval by the secretary on or before June 30, 2010;
providing for periodic review of caseload standards; requiring
caseload standards committees to comply with open meeting
laws; clarifying that employee representatives may serve an
advisory role to a caseload standards committee; establishing
maximum staffing caseloads; providing that caseload standards
be adopted using recognized standards for each program area;
providing that caseload standards may be used to justify an
increase in human resource budgets for program areas; and
making stylistic corrections.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §9-2-6a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9. COMMISSIONER OF HUMAN SERVICES; POWERS, DUTIES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES GENERALLY.
§9-2-6a.
Commissioner Secretary to develop caseload standards;
committee; definitions.
The commissioner (a) On or before June 30, 2010, the secretary
shall
develop propose rules for legislative approval in accordance
with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this
code, specifying program caseload standards based on the actual
duties of employees in each program area of
each agency, bureau and
division within the department and may take into consideration
existing professional caseload standards
for each position and
classification. Standards shall be reasonable and achievable.
(b) A caseload standards committee shall be established and
composed of two employees from each program area in each region.
The members shall be elected by the employees from each program
area from among all the employees in the program area.
On or
before May 1, 2010, a subcommittee composed of the members from
each program of services provided each program area caseload
standards committee shall meet with the appropriate office director
to develop caseload standards for each program. The committee
shall meet at least twice yearly
to review the effectiveness of the
caseload standards adopted pursuant to this section and shall
report recommendations to the
commissioner secretary through the
personnel advisory caseload standards committee
representative
under existing procedures established pursuant to this section.
(c) All meetings of a caseload standards committee established
pursuant to this section shall comply with the open government
meeting requirements of article nine-a, chapter six of this code.
Representatives of an employee organization may serve in an advisory
role
on all caseload standards committees.
The caseload standards which are developed establishing minimum
and maximum caseloads shall be advisory for the department in the
hiring of staff and in individual caseload assignments, and may be
used as a basis of the Department of Health and Human Resources
personal services budget request to the Governor and the
Legislature.
(d) All caseload standards developed as required by this
section shall establish at a minimum the maximum level of staff to
patient caseloads and the maximum level of staff to client
caseloads. Caseload standards may use any professional caseload
standard guidelines established by professional organizations as
they are applicable to a program area: Provided, That a caseload
standard required to be established by this section may not exceed
a maximum average threshold of the recognized applicable
professional caseload standards for any program area.
(e) Caseload standards established pursuant to this section may
be used by the secretary as a basis for requesting increases to any
Department of Health and Human Resources program area budget in order to meet the staff census levels as specified by caseload
standards adopted pursuant to this section.
(f) As used in this section:
(1) "Caseload standards" means a measurable numerical minimum
and maximum workload which an employee can reasonably be expected
to perform in a normal workday or workweek, based on the number,
variety and complexity of cases handled or number of different job
functions performed.
(2) "Professional caseload standards" means standards
established by national standard setting authorities, when they
exist, or caseload standards used in other states which have similar
job titles.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the Secretary of
the Department of Health and Human Resources to propose rules for
legislative approval on or before June 30, 2010, to establish
caseload standards for the program areas within the department.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, underscoring indicates language that would be
added.