The Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) landscape in the United States is facing a critical shortage, with all states reporting deficiencies in HCBS workers, particularly among direct support professionals, personal care attendants, nursing staff, and home health aides. The situation is exacerbated by the permanent closures of HCBS providers in most states over the past year.
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The National Dementia Workforce Study (NDWS) is being launched through an $81 million cooperative agreement with the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to develop and field new annual national surveys of the dementia care workforce, including physicians, nurses, and direct care workers across multiple care settings. The mission of NDWS is to launch the surveys successfully and, of equal importance, to build data infrastructure and dissemination to ensure NDWS becomes a resource for the broader community of researchers and policymakers. This collaborative, interdisciplinary endeavor is led by teams at the University of Michigan and the University of California, San Francisco, with several other university-based and non-profit partners.
A must-attend webinar for every HCAOA Connecticut member on December 4 at 12:00 p.m. ET where Pamela Hunter, Ph.D., CSP, Senior Loss Consultant at WC Trust, will discuss Workplace Violence: Management Training & Safety Controls followed by Q&A. Gain insights into basic de-escalation techniques vital for diffusing potentially violent situations and ensuring caregiver safety.
Register here. The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) introduced proposed regulations for the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act, scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2024. This Act mandates nearly all covered Illinois employers to offer up to 40 hours of annual paid leave for any purpose. All Illinois members are invited to a webinar TOMORROW, November 16 to learn more about this. Hinshaw labor and employment attorney Aimee E. Delaney will discuss how the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act will impact home care. This event is free for members and registration is required. Joyce Grayson, a home health nurse for Elara Caring, was murdered on October 28, 2023, in the home of a patient where she was providing services. Ms. Grayson was reported missing by a family member to the local police department. The family member was also able to track her last location to the home of a patient she was scheduled to visit at 8:00 a.m. on the day of her death. The patient resided at a halfway house for convicted sex offenders. Police have not yet formally identified a suspect in Ms. Grayson’s death.
November is a month that holds a special place in our hearts. It's a time to recognize and honor the thousands of HCAOA member organizations and their caregivers who make a tremendous difference in the lives of countless families. National Home Care Month and & Family Caregiver Month is a time to express our deepest gratitude to the home-based care community. Your unwavering dedication is truly remarkable, and HCAOA is deeply thankful for everything you do!
In Washington state, the new Nursing Assistant skills test went into effect on October 1, 2023. The purpose of the change is to increase access to skills testing following graduation. Graduates will be expected to pass the skills test before registering for the written test, which saves steps and time in the testing and certification process. By 2024, most nursing assistant training programs will provide skills testing routinely after graduation. One of the biggest changes is graduates will no longer register for the skills test on Credentia365 but will continue to use the platform to obtain their Candidate ID number.
Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (the ‘Board’) issued a final rule for joint-employer status that will make it far more likely for one business to be deemed a joint employer of another business’s employees under the National Labor Relations Act. The new rule eliminates the clear standards the current rule provides, making it harder for some employers to forecast risks associated with their relationships with providers, vendors, subcontractors, and franchisees. The "Bridging the Gap" report, authored by Robert Espinoza, Executive Vice President of Policy at PHI, highlights the role played by immigrant direct care workers in the United States' healthcare system, particularly in long-term care for the elderly and individuals with disabilities. Immigrants constitute a substantial 27% of the direct care workforce in the country, underscoring their pivotal contribution to this essential sector. However, the long-term care industry confronts significant challenges, with 9.3 million direct care job openings anticipated between 2021 and 2031. In a historic event on October 4, over 75,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers staged the largest healthcare worker strike in U.S. history. The strike, lasting three days, resulted from unsuccessful negotiations after the expiration of the workers' union contracts on September 30. While the strike did not disrupt hospital and emergency department operations, it drew attention to the ongoing nurse staffing crisis and concerns about patient safety due to short staffing.
Effective June 1, 2023, the Connecticut Department of Social Services, in response to the increase in the minimum wage, is retroactively increasing rates by 4.9% for several Home and Community-Based waiver service providers, the Department announced in a policy bulletin on September 29. (The increase supersedes one that was issued last summer and was effective July 1, 2023.) The programs include the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders and Personal Care Assistance.
A new report by PHI underscores the vital role that immigrants can play in alleviating workforce shortages in home-based care. The report highlights that 32% of home care workers in the U.S. are immigrants.
The New York Department of Health (DOH) has released guidance outlining the due dates for Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs), Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MMCOs), Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs), and Fiscal Intermediaries (FIs) to submit compliance certifications and statements related to the Home Care Worker Wage Parity Law (WPL). |
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