DOH Issues DAL Regarding Department Posting of Aide Training Availability

The Department of Health (DOH) issued a Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) last week providing a list of approved aide training programs as required by a recently signed 2021 law that requires the Department to make individuals interested in becoming home care aides aware of sites that offer Alternative Competency Demonstration (ACD). All Personal Care Aide (PCA) and Home Health Aide (HHA) training programs are required to be posted by the Department.

A listing of training programs with contact information will be posted here.

The guidance also reminds agencies that no qualified applicants can be turned away from training, and agencies are prohibited from requiring trainees to become employees of the agency that is training them. The DAL also reviews requirements and protocols for utilizing the Home Care Registry.

For PCA training programs, the qualifications for an individual to be eligible for the ACD were updated in August 2021 and are contained in the guide that can be found on the Health Commerce System (HCS).

The DAL notes that the following policies are currently in place:

Training programs should follow COVID-19 safety protocols, including social distancing, proper personal protective equipment (PPE) use, and symptom screenings throughout the training process. Questions regarding COVID-19 guidance can be sent to covidhomecare@health.ny.gov.
Division of Home and Community Based Services (DHCBS) DAL 21-01 was issued in January 2021, granting PCA and HHA training programs two-year extensions to their end dates for those end dates between March 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2021. Please note that those extension end dates are approaching, and programs will need to request re-approval of their training programs. The re-approval processes have not changed.
For HHA training programs, all 16 hours of Supervised Practical Training (SPT) can be completed in the lab setting, eliminating the requirement that eight of the 16 hours be done in a patient care setting that is not a nursing facility.

Questions regarding HHA training programs can be sent to hhatp@health.ny.gov; those regarding PCA training programs can be sent to pcatp@health.ny.gov.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-929-9342