AN ACT TO ADDRESS WORKFORCE STABILITY to ensure a LOWER COST OF CARE OPTION for cERTAIN PRIVATE DUTY NURSING under the north carolina medicaid program.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  Beginning July 1, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Benefits, shall increase to eleven dollars and twenty‑five cents ($11.25) per 15 minutes the rate paid for private duty nursing services pursuant to Medicaid Clinical Coverage Policies 3G‑1: Private Duty Nursing for Beneficiaries Age 21 and Older and 3G‑2: Private Duty Nursing for Beneficiaries Under 21 years of Age.

SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Benefits, the sum of five million eight hundred thousand dollars ($5,800,000) in recuring funds for each year of the 2021‑2023 fiscal biennium to implement the Medicaid rate increase required by this act. These funds shall provide a State match for twelve million one hundred twenty‑nine thousand dollars ($12,129,000) in recurring federal funds for each year of the 2021‑2023 fiscal biennium, and those federal funds are appropriated to the Division of Health Benefits to pay for costs associated with the rate increase required by this act.

SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.