Connecticut Health Law

In 2024, the Connecticut state legislature passed Public Act 24-19 to enhance protections for home health workers after a patient murdered a home health nurse. During its 2025 legislative session, the legislature passed Public Act 25-168 which, in Sections 184-186, amends the original law to require hospice agencies to comply with some of the provisions and to make other changes. These amendments went into effect on October 1, 2025.

The 2024 Act

Among other provisions in Public Act 24-19 are those codified at Sections 19a-491f, 19a-491g and 19a-491h, described below.

Section 19a-491f requires that every home health care agency and home health aide agency (collectively, “Home Health Agencies”), upon intake of a prospective client, collect and give to each employee who will provide services to that client information about the client’s history of violence toward health care workers, substance abuse, domestic abuse and other similar concerns as well as information about the location at which the employee will provide services, including the crime rate, whether hazardous substances or weapons are at that location, and other safety hazard information.

Section 19a-491g mandates that each Home Health Agency adopt and implement a health and safety training curriculum for its health care workers, provide annual staff training, and conduct monthly safety assessments with direct care staff. Any such agency must provide evidence to the Commissioner of Social Services that it has adopted and implemented this training or risk losing Medicaid reimbursement. The Commissioner may increase Medicaid reimbursement to any Home Health Agency that reports to the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Department of Public Health (DPH) a workplace violence incident within seven calendar days after its occurrence.

Section 19a-491h obligates each Home Health Agency to report to the Commissioner of Public Health annually, by January 1 of each year, each instance of abuse, verbal or physical, against a staff member by a client and the actions taken by the agency to ensure the safety of the staff member. The Commissioner of Public Health must report no later than March 1 of each year to the Public Health Committee of the General Assembly the number of reports received, and the actions taken to ensure the safety of each victim of any such incident.

The 2025 Act

Public Act 25-168 augments these provisions in several ways.

• It added a new requirement to Section 19a-491f that any health care provider who refers or transfers a patient to a Home Health Agency or a hospice agency must provide at the time of referral any documentation or information about the patient that is required by Section 19a-491f. This places a new obligation upon the referring provider and adds hospice agencies to the entities covered. Hospice agencies are not required to collect the information described in Section 19a-491f.
• It amended Section 19a-491g to require hospice agencies to provide the required training and monthly safety assessments, with the same potential loss of reimbursement or increase in reimbursement currently set forth in that section. It also added the obligation for Home Health Agencies and hospice agencies to establish a system by which staff can promptly report an incidence or threat of violence, and it permits these agencies to conduct the monthly safety assessments through in-person or virtual meetings or via other communication methods.
• The new law amends Section 19a-491h by expanding the requirement to report abuse of a staff member by a client to the obligation to report abuse of a staff member by any person in connection with the staff member’s employment.

Because the consequences of failing to comply with these statutes include possibly losing Medicaid reimbursement, it is critical that every Home Health Agency and hospice agency establish the required training and other procedures.

If you need more information or assistance with this area of the law, please contact an attorney in our Health Care practice.