1.    Minimum standards which a home health agency must meet for licensure are:

a.    The agency shall provide skilled nursing and at least one other therapeutic service, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social services, or home health aide services, on a regular basis.

b.    The agency shall maintain personnel folders on all agency employees, which indicate that qualified personnel are available to render designated services. When hospital or long-term care personnel are utilized by the hospital or long-term care facility to treat agency patients during the normal working hours, the hospital’s or facility’s personnel folder meets this requirement for that facility’s employees. Home health agencies that contract for staff to provide services shall maintain a current written agreement with personnel serving under that contract in the personnel folders maintained under this subsection.

c.    The agency shall maintain plans of treatment, clinical notes, and other means to verify that services are actually provided and not merely listed as being offered.

d.    The agency shall maintain full information in its files relating to ownership of the agency. If the agency is incorporated for profit, the files must contain names and addresses of the corporate officers and of each person having ten percent or greater interest in the ownership of the agency.

e. The agency shall have a supervising physician or a supervising registered professional nurse who is responsible for the direction, coordination, and general supervision of the therapeutic services provided by the agency and who is employed on a full-time basis. There must be supervision from a physician or registered professional nurse during all hours of operation.

f.    If services are to be provided by arrangement with other agencies or organizations, the home health agency shall ensure that the other agencies or organizations furnish qualified and trained personnel.

g.    If services are provided under written contracts between a home health agency and other agencies or other organizations, the home health agency shall have documentation which verifies that communications between the contractor and the staff of the agency are frequent, and that the home health agency has all information necessary to assure that the administrative responsibility for the care of patients rests with the home health agency.

h.    The agency shall maintain clinical records on all patients to serve as documentation of the medical, nursing, and therapeutic care rendered to the patient and for communication between the physician or allowed practitioner and the agency.

i.    The agency shall ensure that home health aides are properly trained and function under adequate supervision.

2.    All phases of an agency’s operation must be without discrimination against individuals or groups of individuals on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, or age.