Parties who may be awarded fees and expenses modification in certain proceedings involving the state

A bill for an act

relating to health care facilities; modifying the parties who may be awarded fees

and expenses in certain proceedings involving the state; modifying requirements

for assisted living facilities to provide residents with a means to request assistance;

exempting assisted living facilities from the provider tax; amending Minnesota

Statutes 2024, sections 144G.41, subdivision 1, by adding a subdivision; 295.50,

subdivision 4; Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, sections 15.471, subdivision

6; 295.50, subdivision 9b.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, section 15.471, subdivision 6, is amended

to read:

Subd. 6.

Party.

(a) Except as modified by paragraph (b), "party" means a person named

or admitted as a party, or seeking and entitled to be admitted as a party, in a court action or

contested case proceeding, or a person admitted by an administrative law judge for limited

purposes, and who is:

(1) an unincorporated business, partnership, corporation, association, or organization,

having not more than 500 employees at the time the civil action was filed or the contested

case proceeding was initiated; and

(2) an unincorporated business, partnership, corporation, association, or organization

whose annual revenues did not exceed
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$7,000,000
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$13,500,000
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at the time the civil action

was filed or the contested case proceeding was initiated.

(b) "Party" also includes a partner, officer, shareholder, member, or owner of an entity

described in paragraph (a), clauses (1) and (2).

(c)
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"
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Party
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"
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does not include a person providing services pursuant to licensure or

reimbursement on a cost basis by
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the Department of Health,
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the Department of Human

Services
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,
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or Direct Care and Treatment when that person is named or admitted or seeking

to be admitted as a party in a matter which involves the licensing or reimbursement rates,

procedures, or methodology applicable to those services.

Sec. 2.

Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 144G.41, subdivision 1, is amended to read:

Subdivision 1.

Minimum requirements.

All assisted living facilities shall:

(1) distribute to residents the assisted living bill of rights;

(2) provide services in a manner that complies with the Nurse Practice Act in sections

148.171
to
148.285
;

(3) utilize a person-centered planning and service delivery process;

(4) have and maintain a system for delegation of health care activities to unlicensed

personnel by a registered nurse, including supervision and evaluation of the delegated

activities as required by the Nurse Practice Act in sections
148.171
to
148.285
;

(5)
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except as specified in subdivision 1c,
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provide a means for residents to request

assistance for health and safety needs 24 hours per day, seven days per week
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. A facility

may use person-centered strategies to provide a means for residents to request assistance

and, if effective, may allow residents to use technological devices to request assistance
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;

(6) allow residents the ability to furnish and decorate the resident's unit within the terms

of the assisted living contract;

(7) permit residents access to food at any time;

(8) allow residents to choose the resident's visitors and times of visits;

(9) allow the resident the right to choose a roommate if sharing a unit;

(10) notify the resident of the resident's right to have and use a lockable door to the

resident's unit. The licensee shall provide the locks on the unit. Only a staff member with

a specific need to enter the unit shall have keys, and advance notice must be given to the

resident before entrance, when possible. An assisted living facility must not lock a resident

in the resident's unit;

(11) develop and implement a staffing plan for determining its staffing level that:

(i) includes an evaluation, to be conducted at least twice a year, of the appropriateness

of staffing levels in the facility;

(ii) ensures sufficient staffing at all times to meet the scheduled and reasonably

foreseeable unscheduled needs of each resident as required by the residents' assessments

and service plans on a 24-hour per day basis; and

(iii) ensures that the facility can respond promptly and effectively to individual resident

emergencies and to emergency, life safety, and disaster situations affecting staff or residents

in the facility;

(12) ensure that one or more persons are available 24 hours per day, seven days per

week, who are responsible for responding to the requests of residents for assistance with

health or safety needs. Such persons must be:

(i) awake;

(ii) located in the same building, in an attached building, or on a contiguous campus

with the facility in order to respond within a reasonable amount of time;

(iii) capable of communicating with residents;

(iv) capable of providing or summoning the appropriate assistance; and

(v) capable of following directions; and

(13) provide staff access to an on-call registered nurse 24 hours per day, seven days per

week.

Sec. 3.

Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 144G.41, is amended by adding a subdivision to

read:

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Subd. 1c.

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Exception to requirement to provide means to request assistance.

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A facility

is not required to provide a means to request assistance for health and safety needs 24 hours

per day, seven days per week, to a resident who:

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(1) has moderate to severe cognitive impairment, including but not limited to dementia;

and

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(2) based on a nursing assessment conducted under section 144G.70, subdivision 2,

cannot reliably use a telephone, bell, call light, pull cord, pendant, or other alerting device

to request assistance.

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Sec. 4.

Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 295.50, subdivision 4, is amended to read:

Subd. 4.

Health care provider.

(a) "Health care provider" means:

(1) a person whose health care occupation is regulated or required to be regulated by

the state of Minnesota furnishing any or all of the following goods or services directly to a

patient or consumer: medical, surgical, optical, visual, dental, hearing, nursing services,

drugs, laboratory, diagnostic or therapeutic services;

(2) a person who provides goods and services not listed in clause (1) that qualify for

reimbursement under the medical assistance program provided under chapter 256B;

(3) a staff model health plan company;

(4) an ambulance service required to be licensed;

(5) a person who sells or repairs hearing aids and related equipment or prescription

eyewear; or

(6) a person providing patient services, who does not otherwise meet the definition of

health care provider and is not specifically excluded in
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clause
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paragraph
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(b), who employs

or contracts with a health care provider as defined in clauses (1) to (5) to perform, supervise,

otherwise oversee, or consult with regarding patient services.

(b) Health care provider does not include:

(1) hospitals; medical supplies distributors, except as specified under paragraph (a),

clause (5); nursing homes licensed under chapter 144A or licensed in any other jurisdiction;

wholesale drug distributors; pharmacies; surgical centers; bus and taxicab transportation,

or any other providers of transportation services other than ambulance services required to

be licensed; supervised living facilities for persons with developmental disabilities, licensed

under Minnesota Rules, parts
4665.0100
to
4665.9900
;
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housing with services establishments

required to be registered under chapter 144D
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assisted living facilities licensed under chapter

144G
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; board and lodging establishments providing only custodial services that are licensed

under chapter 157 and registered under section
157.17
to provide supportive services or

health supervision services; adult foster homes as defined in Minnesota Rules, part

9555.5105
; day training and habilitation services for adults with developmental disabilities

as defined in section
252.41, subdivision 3
; boarding care homes, as defined in Minnesota

Rules, part
4655.0100
; and adult day care centers as defined in Minnesota Rules, part

9555.9600
;

(2) home health agencies as defined in Minnesota Rules, part
9505.0175
, subpart 15; a

person providing personal care services and supervision of personal care services as defined

in Minnesota Rules, part
9505.0335
; a person providing home care nursing services as

defined in Minnesota Rules, part
9505.0360
; and home care providers required to be licensed

under chapter 144A for home care services provided under chapter 144A;

(3) a person who employs health care providers solely for the purpose of providing

patient services to its employees;

(4) an educational institution that employs health care providers solely for the purpose

of providing patient services to its students if the institution does not receive fee for service

payments or payments for extended coverage; and

(5) a person who receives all payments for patient services from health care providers,

surgical centers, or hospitals for goods and services that are taxable to the paying health

care providers, surgical centers, or hospitals, as provided under section
295.53, subdivision

1
, paragraph (b), clause (3) or (4), or from a source of funds that is excluded or exempt from

tax under sections
295.50
to
295.59
.

Sec. 5.

Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, section 295.50, subdivision 9b, is amended

to read:

Subd. 9b.

Patient services.

(a) "Patient services" means inpatient and outpatient services

and other goods and services provided by hospitals, surgical centers, or health care providers.

They include the following health care goods and services provided to a patient or consumer:

(1) bed and board;

(2) nursing services and other related services;

(3) use of hospitals, surgical centers, or health care provider facilities;

(4) medical social services;

(5) drugs, biologicals, supplies, appliances, and equipment;

(6) other diagnostic or therapeutic items or services;

(7) medical or surgical services;

(8) items and services furnished to ambulatory patients not requiring emergency care;

and

(9) emergency services.

(b)
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"
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Patient services
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"
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does not include:

(1) services provided to nursing homes licensed under chapter 144A;

(2) examinations for purposes of utilization reviews, insurance claims or eligibility,

litigation, and employment, including reviews of medical records for those purposes;

(3) services provided to and by community residential mental health facilities licensed

under section
245I.23
or Minnesota Rules, parts
9520.0500
to
9520.0670
, and to and by

residential treatment programs for children with a serious mental illness licensed or certified

under chapter 245A;

(4) services provided under the following programs: day treatment services as defined

in section
245.462, subdivision 8
; assertive community treatment as described in section

256B.0622
; adult rehabilitative mental health services as described in section
256B.0623
;

crisis response services as described in section
256B.0624
; and children's therapeutic services

and supports as described in section
256B.0943
;

(5) services provided to and by community mental health centers as defined in section

245.62, subdivision 2
;

(6) services provided to and by assisted living programs and congregate housing

programs;

(7) hospice care services;

(8) home and community-based waivered services under chapter 256S and sections

256B.49
and
256B.501
;

(9) targeted case management services under sections
256B.0621
;
256B.0625,

subdivisions 20, 20a, 33, and 44
; and
256B.094
; and

(10) services provided to the following: supervised living facilities for persons with

developmental disabilities licensed under Minnesota Rules, parts
4665.0100
to
4665.9900
;
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housing with services establishments required to be registered under chapter
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144D
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assisted

living facilities licensed under chapter 144G
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; board and lodging establishments providing

only custodial services that are licensed under chapter 157 and registered under section

157.17
to provide supportive services or health supervision services; adult foster homes as

defined in Minnesota Rules, part
9555.5105
; day training and habilitation services for adults

with developmental disabilities as defined in section
252.41, subdivision 3
; boarding care

homes as defined in Minnesota Rules, part
4655.0100
; adult day care services as defined

in section
245A.02, subdivision 2a
; and home health agencies as defined in Minnesota

Rules, part
9505.0175
, subpart 15, or licensed under chapter 144A.