INITIATIVE PETITION AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION

The following new Section 31 would be added to Article V of the Michigan Constitution:

ยง 31 Michigan Quality Home Care Council

  1. State programs to assist elderly persons and persons with disabilities by financing, in whole or in part, in-home personal care services, shall afford to program participants who are able to do so the option to hire and direct individual providers of such services.
  2. There is hereby established a Michigan Quality Home Care Council whose purpose shall be to facilitate participants’ ability to more effectively exercise that option, including by improving the availability, reliability and skills of the individual provider workforce. Council duties and functions shall include:
    1. Providing training opportunities for providers, to improve provider skills, and for participants, to facilitate their ability to hire and manage providers;
    2. Providing for a registry that may refer qualified providers who have had appropriate background checks for employment, however participants shall retain the right to hire providers not referred from the registry;
    3. Ensuring that financial management services are available to participants to facilitate their ability to employ providers, to ensure compliance with applicable laws, and to make appropriate employment-related payroll deductions;
    4. Setting compensation standards, subject to appropriations by the Legislature, and other terms and conditions for the employment of individual providers by program participants; and
    5. Other related duties and functions, not inconsistent with the foregoing, as assigned to the Council by law or as necessary or convenient to implement the purposes of this Section.
  3. The Council shall be governed by a board of eleven (11) members, including:
    1. Nine individuals appointed by the Governor with expertise regarding participant needs, no fewer than seven of whom shall be current or former program participants, participant representatives, or participant advocates; however such positions shall initially be filled by those similarly qualified members of the Michigan Quality Community Care Council board who last filled those positions prior to the passage of this Section. Upon expiration of each such initial member’s term of appointment, the position to be filled under this paragraph shall have a term of four years.
    2. Serving as Chair, the Director of the Department of Community Health, or of the successor executive department principally responsible for administering State medical assistance programs providing services governed by this Section, or his designee; and
    3. The Director of the Department of Human Services, or of such successor executive department, as the Governor determines has responsibilities relating to State programs providing services governed by this Section, or his designee.
  4. The Council shall be a public body within the Executive Branch, with the normal powers, duties, rights and responsibilities, including regarding contracting, acquiring and disposing of property, and adopting rules. The Council may accept gifts, grants, bequests, or assets from any source, expend such funds, and accept assistance from other governmental agencies, to effectuate its purposes. The Council shall assume and succeed to the authorities, duties and obligations of the Michigan Quality Community Care Council to the extent consistent with this Section, including any obligations to recognize provider representatives and to honor any unexpired agreements (to the extent of a term not to exceed 3 years) with such representatives, as last incurred or entered into by that Council prior to the adoption of this Section.
  5. Consistent with this Section, participant-employed providers governed by this Section shall have the same rights relating to collective bargaining with the Council as are otherwise provided by law to public employees not within the classified civil service relating to their public employers, and the Council shall be governed by such collective bargaining arrangements, to be enforced by the appropriate labor relations agency. But such providers shall not, as a consequence of this Section, be considered public or State employees for any other purpose, nor be entitled to any other legal benefit reserved to such employees. Collective bargaining under this Section shall not deprive participant of their right to select, supervise, train and direct, or terminate, an individual provider. Such providers shall not have the right to strike.
  6. Nothing in this Section shall be construed in a manner that conflicts with a state’s obligations under Medicaid. The Department of Community Health or other responsible agency shall cooperate with the Council, including by providing assistance as necessary or convenient to implement the provisions of this Section.