§ 131E-136 — Definitions

As used in this Part, unless otherwise specified:
(1) "Commission" means the North Carolina Medical Care Commission.
(1a) "Geographic service area" means the geographic area in which a licensed agency provides home care services.
(1b) "Home assistance services" means the following services, which are not home care services:
a. In-home companion, sitter, or respite care services provided to an individual.
b. Homemaker services provided in combination with in-home companion, sitter, or respite care services.
(1c) "Home assistance services provider" means a private or public organization that is predominantly engaged in providing, directly or indirectly, home assistance services. This does not include a home care agency, home health agency, or other organization predominantly engaged in providing home care services.
(2) "Home care agency" means a private or public organization that provides home care services.
(2a) "Home care agency director" means the person having administrative responsibility for the operation of the licensed agency site.
(2b) "Home care client" means an individual who receives home care services.
(3) "Home care services" means any of the following services and directly related medical supplies and appliances, which are provided to an individual in a place of temporary or permanent residence used as an individual's home:
a. Nursing care provided by or under the supervision of a registered nurse.
b. Physical, occupational, or speech therapy, when provided to an individual who also is receiving nursing services, or any other of these therapy services, in a place of temporary or permanent residence used as the individual's home.
c. Medical social services.
d. In-home aide services that involve hands-on care to an individual.
e. Infusion nursing services.
f. Assistance with pulmonary care, pulmonary rehabilitation or ventilation.
g. In-home companion, sitter, and respite care services provided to an individual in conjunction with other home care services.
h. Homemaker services provided in combination with in-home companion, sitter, respite, or other home care services.
The terms "home assistance services" and "home care services" do not include: health promotion, preventative health and community health services provided by public health departments; maternal and child health services provided by public health departments, by employees of the Department of Health and Human Services under G.S. 130A-124, or by developmental evaluation centers under contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to provide services under G.S. 130A-124; hospitals licensed under Article 5 of Chapter 131E of the General Statutes when providing follow-up care initiated to patients within six months after their discharge from the hospital; facilities and programs operated under the authority of G.S. 122C and providing services within the scope of G.S. 122C; schools, when providing services pursuant to Article 9 of Chapter 115C; the practice of midwifery by a person licensed under Article 10A of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes; hospices licensed under Article 10 of Chapter 131E of the General Statutes when providing care to a hospice patient; an individual who engages solely in providing his own services to other individuals; incidental health care provided by an employee of a physician licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina in the normal course of the physician's practice; or nursing registries if the registry discloses to a client or the client's responsible party, before providing any services, that (i) it is not a licensed home care agency, and (ii) it does not make any representations or guarantees concerning the training, supervision, or competence of the personnel provided. The term sitter does not include child care facilities licensed in accordance with Chapter 110 of the General Statutes. The term respite care does not include facilities or services licensed in accordance with Chapter 122C of the General Statutes. The terms in-home companion, sitter, homemaker, and respite care services do not include (i) services certified or otherwise overseen by the Department as not providing personal care or (ii) services administered on a voluntary basis for which there is not reimbursement from the recipient or anyone acting on the recipient's behalf.
(4) "Home health agency" means a home care agency which is certified to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for providing nursing care, therapy, medical social services, and home health aide services on a part-time, intermittent basis as set out in G.S. 131E-176(12), and is thereby also subject to Article 9 of Chapter 131E.
(5) "Homemaker services" means basic home management tasks, shopping, meal preparation, transportation, socialization, medication reminders, and other services that do not require the service provider to touch the client and which do not require training or verification of skills by a registered nurse. (1971, c. 539, s. 1; 1983, c. 775, s. 1; 1983 (Reg. Sess., 1984), c. 1022, s. 4; 1987, c. 34, s. 1; 1991, c. 59, s. 1; c. 761, s. 34; 1997-443, s. 11A.90; 2005-276, s. 10.40A(m); 2008-127, s. 1; 2023-150, s. 1(a).)