(a) A provider agency must comply with Chapter 49 of this title (relating to Contracting for Community Services).
(b) A provider agency and its subcontractors must comply with reporting requirements for the USDA incentive program.
  (1) The reporting requirements of the USDA incentive program are provided annually through a DADS memo to contracted agencies.
  (2) A provider agency must maintain documentation of all eligible meals delivered under the USDA incentive program according to the terms of the contract.
  (3) This subsection does not apply to Title XIX (Medicaid) funded home-delivered meals contracts.
(c) A provider agency that wants to contract with DADS to provide home-delivered meals must agree to provide services:
  (1) for a specific number of service days, with a minimum of five meals per week;
  (2) within specific geographic service areas established in the contract;
  (3) to all eligible clients in a service area unless services are suspended or unless the provider agency is unable to provide a certain therapeutic medical diet; and
  (4) for the reimbursement rate that DADS negotiates with the provider agency on an annual basis. This negotiated rate must be within the DADS unit rate ceiling then in effect.

Source Note: The provisions of this §281.5 adopted to be effective March 1, 2004, 29 TexReg 1672; amended to be effective September 1, 2014, 39 TexReg 6672; transferred effective June 28, 2024, as published in the June 7, 2024, issue of the Texas Register, 49 TexReg 4063