Bill 92 explained in plain English
Empowering Home Care Patients Act, 2015
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The Empowering Home Care Patients Act, 2015 amends the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994 to shorten complaint response times, require appeal information in decision notices, and provide for stays on decisions that would terminate or reduce home care services during an appeal.
Bill 92, the Empowering Home Care Patients Act, 2015, amends the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994. It aims to improve the process for individuals receiving home care services who wish to complain about or appeal decisions regarding the services they are entitled to. Key changes include reducing the time for agencies to respond to complaints and ensuring that appeals related to the termination or reduction of services automatically put those decisions on hold. The bill also mandates that notices about decisions must include information on how to appeal.
- Shortens the time frame for approved home care agencies to respond to complaints about decisions regarding a person's entitlement to community services from 60 days to 30 days.
- Requires that notices of decisions and copies of decisions provided to individuals must include information on how to appeal the decision to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board.
- Introduces a provision that automatically pauses (stays) a decision made by an approved agency if that decision would terminate or reduce the community services a person is receiving, provided an appeal has been filed.
- Specifies that the automatic stay on decisions applies to appeals where the notice requiring a hearing was given to the Appeal Board on or after the date the Empowering Home Care Patients Act, 2015 received Royal Assent.
- Individuals receiving home care and community services in Ontario
- Approved home care agencies in Ontario
- The Health Services Appeal and Review Board (Appeal Board)
- Approved agencies are now required to respond to complaints about service entitlement decisions within 30 days, down from 60 days.
- Individuals receiving decisions about their services have the right to receive information about how to appeal these decisions.
- Individuals appealing a decision that would terminate or reduce their services have the right to have that decision automatically put on hold during the appeal process.
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- The bill text does not specify what constitutes an 'approved agency' under the Act.
- The bill text does not detail the specific types of 'community services' that are covered by this Act.
- The precise procedures for submitting an appeal to the Appeal Board are not detailed within this bill text.
This Act is amended by Bill 92. Specifically, changes are made to sections related to complaint processes, response times, and the effect of appeals on decisions about home care services. The Act is also given a new short title under the Empowering Home Care Patients Act, 2015.
Source: An Act to amend the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994
The time period for an approved agency to respond to complaints before clause (a) is reduced from 60 days to 30 days.
Source: Section 1 (1)
A new subsection is added requiring that any notice or decision regarding complaints must include information on how to appeal to the Appeal Board.
Source: Section 1 (2)
The time period is changed from 60 days to 30 days in relation to the matters described in this clause.
Source: Section 2
A new section (40.1) is added which states that if a decision by an approved agency would end or reduce community services, an appeal to the Appeal Board will automatically put that decision on hold. This applies to appeals where the notice for a hearing was given on or after the bill received Royal Assent.
Source: Section 3
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
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Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
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Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
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