Minnesota Put EIDBI Notes on a 72-Hour Clock. A 40-Hour Weekly Limit Comes Next.
Two 2026 laws rewrite Minnesota's EIDBI benefit: chapter 95 adds documentation standards DHS can enforce by withholding payment, and chapter 121 sets weekly billing limits and electronic visit verification from July 1, 2027 or federal approval.
Minnesota passed two laws this session that rewrite EIDBI, the benefit at the center of the federal fraud case we covered on August 23. One governs the notes you write today. The other limits what you can bill starting in 2027.
Chapter 95: documentation, now
Laws 2026, chapter 95 adds a documentation subdivision to Minn. Stat. 256B.0949. All CMDE and EIDBI documentation must, among other things:
- “be entered within 72 hours of service and contain a record and explanation of any delays in entry”
- be signed and dated with the provider's full name, title and credentials
- “clearly reflect clinical decision-making and support medical necessity”
- include a record of caregiver involvement and of supervision
“Each EIDBI service occurrence must be documented in a progress note.” Personnel files need ten listed items, including the dates of each employee's first supervised and unsupervised client contact and signed records of supervision received.
The teeth: DHS “may withhold payment from an agency or suspend or terminate the agency's enrollment number” for failing to comply with the new documentation requirements. The same chapter requires the monthly intervention observation and direction to be delivered “by a QSP.”
Chapter 121: limits, later
Laws 2026, chapter 121 adds billing limits, “effective July 1, 2027, or upon federal approval, whichever is later”:
- Intensive services: 40 hours per week per recipient
- Travel: 2 hours per day
- Observation and direction: 20 hours per week
- Individual treatment and planning: 300 units per year
DHS “must grant exceptions” when more is medically necessary. But “a determination under this paragraph is final and not subject to appeal.”
Chapter 121 also adds EIDBI to the services subject to electronic visit verification, with third-party system requirements applying to EIDBI from the same July 1, 2027-or-federal-approval date.
The turn: the 72-hour rule has no date of its own
Chapter 95's documentation sections name no effective date. Under Minn. Stat. 645.02 the default is August 1 after enactment, or July 1 for an act carrying appropriation items, and chapter 95 contains appropriation language. On either reading it's already in force. That's our reading of the statute, not a DHS notice. DHS's site blocks automated access, so we couldn't check its implementation guidance.
The limits
We can't tell from the statute whether 40 hours is lower than what DHS authorizes today or writes existing practice into law. Federal approval sets the real start date of the billing limits, and there's no approval yet. Existing law still requires DHS to issue or deny every provisional EIDBI license by December 31, 2026.
What you must know or do
- Run a report of note entry time minus service time for last month. Every note over 72 hours needs a written explanation of the delay in the record.
- Check that monthly observation and direction for every client was done by a QSP and documented as such.
- Count recipients above 40 intensive hours or 20 observation-and-direction hours a week now. Those are the cases that will need exceptions, and denials can't be appealed.
- Audit five personnel files against the ten required items, starting with first supervised and unsupervised contact dates, which few HR systems record.