Tender Hand Healthcare Services

Your rights are not ours to give.

Patient & Participant Bill of Rights

You already hold these rights. They come from federal law, from New Jersey law, and from the plain fact of being a person. THHS did not grant them and cannot take them away. What follows is our written acknowledgment of what is already yours — and what you can do if we fall short of it.

Effective date: [DATE]   ·   Last reviewed: [DATE]

Part One — If you receive home health services

1. To treatment and services without discrimination based on race, age, religion, national origin, sex, sexual preference, handicap, diagnosis, ability to pay, or source of payment.

   We care for you the same regardless of who you are, what you have, what you believe, or how your care is paid for.

2. To be given a written notice, prior to the initiation of care, of these patient rights and any additional policies and procedures established by the agency involving patient rights and responsibilities. If a patient is unable to respond, the agency shall give the notice to a family member or other responsible individual.

   You get this document in writing before care starts — not after. If you cannot take it in yourself, we give it to your family member or representative.

3. To be informed in writing of the following:

   • Services available from the agency;
   • The names and professional status of personnel providing and/or responsible for care;
   • The frequency of home visits to be provided; and
   • The agency’s daytime and emergency telephone numbers.

   In writing: what we offer, who is coming to your home and what their qualifications are, how often they will come, and how to reach us — including after hours.

4. To receive, in terms that the patient understands, an explanation of his or her plan of care, expected results, and reasonable alternatives. If receiving this information would be detrimental to the patient’s health, or if the patient is not able to understand the information, the agency shall provide the explanation to a family member or guardian and document the provision of the explanation in the patient’s medical record.

   Your plan of care explained in words you actually understand — what we expect to happen, and what your other options are. If we have explained it and you do not understand it, we have not explained it.

5. To receive, as soon as possible, the services of a translator or interpreter to facilitate communication between the patient and health care personnel.

   An interpreter, as soon as we can get one. At no cost to you. You never have to rely on a relative to translate your own medical care.

6. To receive ordered care and health services.

   The care your doctor ordered is the care you get.

7. To participate in the planning of the patient’s home health care and treatment.

   You are in the room where your care is planned. Not consulted afterward — present for it.

8. To refuse services, including medication and treatment, that an agency provides and to be informed of available home health treatment options, including the option of no treatment and of the possible benefits and risks of each option.

   You can say no. To a medication, to a treatment, to all of it. We will tell you honestly what each choice means — including the choice to do nothing — and then we will respect the one you make.

9. To refuse to participate in experimental research. If a patient chooses to participate in experimental research, an agency shall obtain the patient’s written informed consent.

   You are never enrolled in research without knowing, and never without signing.

10. To receive full information about financial arrangements, including, but not limited to:

    • Fees and charges, including any fees and charges for services not covered by sources of third-party payment;
    • Copies of written records of financial arrangements;
    • Notification of any additional charges, expenses, or other financial liabilities in excess of the predetermined fee; and
    • Description of agreements with third-party payers and/or other payers and referral systems for patients’ financial assistance.

    No surprise bills. You are told what things cost, what your insurance covers, what it does not, and what you may owe — before you owe it.

11. To express grievances to an agency’s staff and governing authority regarding care and services without fear of reprisal, and to receive an answer to those grievances within a reasonable time.

    You can complain, to anyone here, all the way up. Nothing bad happens to you for it. And you get an actual answer.

12. To be free from mental and physical abuse and from exploitation.

    No one may hurt you, frighten you, or take advantage of you. Not our staff. Not anyone.

13. To be free from restraints, unless they are authorized by a physician for a limited period of time to protect the patient or others from injury.

    You will not be restrained — unless a doctor orders it, for a limited time, to stop someone from being hurt.

14. To be assured of confidential treatment of the patient’s medical/health record, and to approve or refuse in writing its release to any individual outside the agency, except as required by law or third-party payment contract.

    Your record is private. You decide, in writing, who outside THHS sees it — except where the law requires otherwise. Our Notice of Privacy Practices explains this in full.

15. To be treated with courtesy, consideration, respect, and recognition of the patient’s dignity, individuality, and right to privacy, including, but not limited to, auditory and visual privacy and confidentiality concerning patient treatment and disclosures.

    You are treated like a person, in your own home, with the door closed and the curtain drawn.

16. To be assured of respect for the patient’s personal property.

    Your things are your things. We do not move them, use them, or take them.

17. To join with other patients or individuals to work for improvements in patient care.

    You may organize. You may advocate. You may work with others to change how care is done — including ours.

18. To retain and exercise to the fullest extent possible, all the constitutional, civil, and legal rights to which the patient is entitled by law, including religious liberties, the right to independent personal decisions, and the right to provide instructions and directions for health care in the event of future decision making incapacity in accordance with the New Jersey Advance Directives for Health Care Act, N.J.S.A. 26:2H-53 et seq., the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Act, N.J.S.A. 26:2H-129 et seq., and with N.J.A.C. 8:42-6.5.

    Needing care does not cost you a single one of your rights as a citizen. You may worship, decide, and record in advance what you want done if you can no longer speak for yourself.

19. To be transferred to another agency only for one of the reasons delineated at N.J.A.C. 8:42-6.6.

    We cannot hand you off to another agency for just any reason. The law lists the reasons, and we must have one.

20. To discharge himself or herself from treatment by the agency.

    You can stop. At any time. You do not need our permission and you do not need to justify it.

21. To file a complaint with the New Jersey Department of Health.

    You can go over our heads, straight to the State. The number is below, it runs twenty-four hours, and you do not need to tell us you are calling it.

Additional rights under Medicare

Before care begins, we must give you

• Written notice of your rights and responsibilities, and of our transfer and discharge policies — in a language and manner you understand, accessible if you have a disability.
• The name, business address, and business phone number of the THHS administrator, so you can complain directly to the top.
• An OASIS privacy notice, if we collect OASIS data about you.
• A request for your signature confirming you received all of this. You are entitled to a copy.

If you name a representative, we must give them the same written notice within four business days of the initial evaluation visit.

You also have the federal right to

• Have your property and person treated with respect.
• Be free from verbal, mental, sexual, and physical abuse, including injuries of unknown source, neglect, and misappropriation of your property.
• Participate in, be informed about, and consent to or refuse care — including your assessments, your plan of care, which disciplines will provide it, how often, the expected outcomes and the risks, and any change to any of it.
• Receive all services in your plan of care.
• Be told, orally and in writing, what Medicare or Medicaid will pay, what they will not, and what you may have to pay before care starts.
• Receive written notice in advance if we believe a service may not be covered, or before we reduce or end your care.
• Be told about the state toll-free home health hotline — its number, its hours, and that it exists to take complaints about agencies like us.
• Be given the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the Agency on Aging, Center for Independent Living, Protection and Advocacy Agency, Aging and Disability Resource Center, and Quality Improvement Organization serving your area.
• Be free from discrimination or reprisal for using your rights or voicing a grievance — to us, or to anyone outside.
• Be told about, and given, auxiliary aids and language services at no cost to you.

Transfer and discharge

We may only transfer or discharge you for a reason the regulation permits: your needs exceed what we can safely meet; you or your payer will no longer pay; your goals have been met and your physician agrees you no longer need us; you refuse services or choose to leave; a discharge for cause under a written policy; you die; or THHS ceases to operate.

Before any discharge for cause, we must tell you and your physician it is being considered, make real efforts to resolve the problem, give you contact information for other providers who may be able to help, and document all of it.

Part Two — If you receive developmental disability services

Your life is yours to direct

• You choose. Where you live, who supports you, how your day is shaped, what you do with it, and what you say no to.
• You may make choices that the people around you — family, friends, staff — would not have made for you. That is what a choice is.
• You participate in writing your own Individualized Service Plan. It is written with you, not about you.
• You may change your mind, change your goals, and change your provider.

Your place in the community

• You have the right to live, work, and take part in your community alongside people who do not have disabilities.
• You have the right to relationships of your own choosing — friendships, and intimate relationships.
• You have the right to privacy in your own home and in your own person.
• You have the right to your own money and your own property.

Your safety and dignity

• You have the right to be free from abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and to have any such incident reported and investigated.
• You have the right to be free from restraint and from any aversive practice.
• You have the right to be spoken to as an adult, in words you understand, in whatever way you communicate.
• You have the right to complain — to THHS, to your Support Coordinator, and to the Division — without any consequence to your services.

Your rights are not conditional

• Having a guardian does not remove your rights. It changes who exercises some of them, on your behalf, within the limits a court has set.
• Needing support does not make you a child, and it does not make your preferences suggestions.

What we ask of you

New Jersey requires us to inform you of responsibilities as well as rights. These are requests, not conditions. Failing to meet them does not cost you a single right listed above.

• Tell us honestly about your health, your medications, and your history — it is how we keep you safe.
• Tell us when something changes: your condition, your address, your insurance, your representative.
• Tell us if you do not understand something, or if you do not intend to follow the plan. We would rather know than guess.
• Treat our staff with the same respect we owe you.
• Let us know if you will not be home for a scheduled visit.

If a right is not honored

Tell us. You may do it by phone, by email, by letter, or by telling any THHS staff member in your home. You do not need to put it in writing, and you do not need to use a particular form or word.

We will investigate, we will document it, and we will tell you what we found and what we are doing. We will act to prevent it happening again — including protecting you from any retaliation while we look into it.

Contact

You may request this Bill of Rights in large print, in plain language, in another language, or read aloud to you. There is no form and there is no cost. See our Accessibility Statement.

Tender Hand Healthcare Services LLC · Patient & Participant Bill of Rights · Aligned with the NJ DDD Supports Program Policies and Procedures Manual · Effective February 2025 · Last reviewed May 2026