Your responsibilities

As an employer of a PCA, you have certain responsibilities. You will manage the PCA program on your own or with a surrogate, if you need one. A surrogate is a person who knows you and your needs and will share in the management of the PCA program.

Your PCM agency will be available to teach you about your rights and responsibilities as a PCA consumer. Among your responsibilities as a PCA consumer, you need to:

• Clearly explain the responsibilities of the job to your PCA.
• Clearly state the terms of employment, including what the job pays and the hours and days the worker is needed.
• Check references of job candidates.
• Consider an optional criminal background check. You may request Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) on a person you wish to hire as a PCA. Click on the link above or telephone 617-660-4600. There is no charge for elders and people with disabilities to conduct a CORI on a PCA you wish to hire. You may download a form online.
  
• Before you interview your PCA, you will need to check the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities maintained by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The MassHealth PCA program can NOT pay you for a PCA whose name is listed. To check if an individual is listed by the OIG, you need only to enter their name on the Exclusion Search page.
• Supervise your employee by giving direction and feedback.
• Complete and send all required paperwork as requested by the Fiscal Intermediary (FI), including PCA Activity Forms (time sheets).
• Ensure all Activity Forms are accurate. By signing the weekly Activity Forms, you certify that your PCA has worked the listed hours.
• Pay your PCA in a timely manner; make sure the number of hours your PCA works does not exceed the number of weekly or nightly hours authorized by MassHealth.
• Explain your daily personal care routine to your PCA, and teach your PCA how to assist you with those routines.
• Do not hire PCAs to work while you are in an inpatient facility such as a nursing home or hospital. MassHealth cannot pay PCAs to work while a member is in a nursing home or inpatient hospital.
• Rewarding Work will conduct surveys periodically of PCA users to determine their level of satisfaction. Please respond fully and in a timely fashion when you receive a survey. They are important in assuring that RewardingWork.org remains a useful service.

If you have difficulty managing the process – from selecting and interviewing to hiring, including background checks – contact your Personal Care Management (PCM) agency.

For complete information about the MassHealth PCA program, consult the PCA Consumer Handbook (1.12 MB PDF)

Note: Job candidates in the Rewarding Work database have NOT been screened in any way and their backgrounds have NOT been checked. It is your responsibility as an employer to check references and backgrounds of people you may hire.

Have questions? Click here.

Click here for Tips on using the Mass. PCA Directory.

Who to call when issues arise between employers and workers >>

If you have additional questions about Rewarding Work, call us toll-free at 866-212-WORK (9675).

If you have comments that will help make this resource more useful, please send us an email.