Why was the Housing-with-Services Contract Act needed?
Beginning in the mid-1980s, the state was increasingly concerned that many frail elderly persons who once would have lived in nursing homes were now living in a variety of unregulated residential settings (senior housing). In order to assure that these frail persons receive appropriate and adequate services, the Minnesota Department of Health proposed that many of these settings be regulated as residential care homes, with requirements modeled after nursing homes. After reviewing this institutional type of regulatory system, MHHA met with hundreds of providers, consumers and others and concluded that a consumer-driven model, using the well-understood concept of a legal contract, would be preferable. This model makes a distinction between the building and supportive (non-health related) services-which are monitored primarily by the consumer-and health-related or home care services-which are licensed and surveyed by the Minnesota Department of Health. How does this differ from the tradit
