• Home healthcare is a regulated industry in Michigan.nurse on duty image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
  
  In Michigan, home health care agencies provide professional personal assistance and nursing services to people living in their own homes. Using a Michigan home health care agency is an affordable alternative for seniors who require assistance with several personal needs. Examples of these needs include meal preparation, bathing, exercise therapy and medical treatment. While home health care is not as highly regulated in Michigan as nursing homes or other residential programs, there are still several laws that home health agencies must follow.
  
  

Department of Aging

• The Michigan Department of Social Services (MDSS) is the agency that oversees and regulates home health care agencies. Home health agencies are subject to yearly inspections by the MDSS. MDSS is responsible during these inspections to check that all employees have been vetted through the Michigan background-check system. MDSS will also assess the agency's ability to provide assistance and training to its employees so that each aide and nurse will protect the health and welfare of all clients. The agency must prepare a written plan of care for each client and keep these plans on record at the agency, subject to inspection. MDSS also makes sure that pharmaceuticals are being properly distributed and that no prescription drugs are being stolen or mismanaged by home health care personnel.
  
  

Services

• Michigan law requires that home health agencies provide several basic services before an agency can advertise as home health agencies and bill clients. The services must include, at a minimum: chore services, home delivered meals, respite care, personal care (such as bathing and grooming), adult day care, mental health care, private duty nursing, emergency response systems, transportation and medical equipment and supply services. The agency must also provide training and support to its home health aides.
  
  

Employee Background Check

• Michigan statute 333.20173a requires all home health agencies to conduct a criminal background check of all employees before hiring. The agency may not hire or continue to employ any person who has been convicted of a felony. Also, the agency cannot hire a person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor for theft, embezzlement, fraud, abuse or neglect. If an agency manager fails to perform this background check, she can be charged with a misdemeanor crime and sentenced to less than a year in jail. An agency that fails to perform these checks might also be subject to a fine of $5000.
  
  

Medicare patients

• If the Michigan home health agency bills Medicare patients, the state of Michigan has created a further requirement. The home care agency must make sure that the average per capita expenditure to Medicare patients does not exceed the estimated average per capita expenditure for patients in nursing homes, hospitals, or other residential services.