 |
|
|
June 20, 2007
|
In This Issue:
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Recent additions
Click here for more news from the Clearinghouse.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
HCHCW Wins Significant Amendments to MI HEART Bill
HCHCW staff participated in an April workgroup to provide input into the creation of a board that would help administer the Michigan First Health Care Plan. Called the MI-HEART Exchange, the board would run the program, operating as an independent body within the Department of Community Health.
The workgroup, which was chaired by Senator Tom George (R-Kalamazoo), analyzed SB 278, the law that would create the exchange. The group included legislative staff, physicians, and representatives from health plans, insurance companies, and hospitals. HCHCW was the only advocacy organization represented.
HCHCW staff provided detailed comments and recommendations on the draft legislation. Several of HCHCW's recommendations were included in the new draft:
Click here for details.
Lawless Speaks Out for Health Care Coverage
Tracy Lawless, campaign coordinator for the Pennsylvania Healthcare for Healthcare Workers initiative, participated in a May 23 rally in support of Prescription for Pennsylvania, the statewide legislative plan to reform health care that would benefit direct-care workers last month. Among the 700 people in attendance were direct-care workers and consumers.
A report on the rally in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quotes Lawless as explaining that employers often hesitate to offer health insurance because of the high cost. However, she said, insurance improves retention rates, allowing employers to save on recruitment and training costs.
|
|
 |
|
More Information
Click here to read more from and about the HCHCW campaign.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
All-Star Team of Experts Talks Long-Term Care Financing
Videotaped presentations and other materials from a June 11 Georgetown University forum on financing long-term care are now available online. Moderators and presenters for the day-long meeting include an all-star lineup of PhDs with deep knowledge of the long-term care system. Among them were Christine E. Bishop, Judy Feder, Robert Friedland, William Scanlon, and Gail Wilensky.
EEOC Guidance Looks at Discrimination against Family Caregivers
A new guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discusses what constitutes discrimination against a worker because he or she has family caregiving responsibilities. Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers With Caregiving Responsibilities notes that, while laws prohibiting discrimination do not specifically extend to caregivers, there may be circumstances in which discrimination against caregivers could be considered unlawful disparate treatment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, or the Family and Medical Leave Act. There may also be state or local laws that extend protection to caregivers under various provisions.
Census Tallies Elders, State by State
The 37.3 million people in America who were 65 or older in 2006 represented 12 percent of the population, according to U.S. Census figures released last month. The states with the highest percentages of elders include Florida (16.8 percent), West Virginia (15.3 percent) and Pennsylvania (15.2 percent). The states with the lowest percentages are Alaska (6.8 percent), Utah (8.8 percent) and Georgia (9.7 percent). The report, titled National and State Characteristics, tallies the U.S. population by race, Hispanic origin, sex and age, both nationally and state by state.
States Expected to Tighten Purse Strings in FY 2008
Fiscal year 2007 was a year of "stable financial conditions" for most states, but revenue growth is expected to slow and fiscal conditions to tighten in FY2008, according to The Fiscal Survey of States, a 66-page report from the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers. Much of the spending growth is due to Medicaid, which accounts for approximately 22 percent of total state spending. Overall, the report finds, health care costs total 32 percent of state spending, the single largest area. "The steady rise in health care costs continues to be a dominant force of increased state spending," said NGA executive director Raymond C. Scheppach in a NGA press release. "Governors realize that meeting these ever-increasing expenditure expectations with limited revenues will be problematic in the future."
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Why do you think direct-care wages tend to be so low?
Because caregiving has traditionally been unpaid or very low-paid "women's work."--41%
Because a disproportionate percentage of direct-care workers are women of color.--0%
Because not enough people believe that direct-care work is important and skilled enough to merit a living wage.--41%
Another reason.--18%
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Friend,
Vera Salter, the original editor of this newsletter and the director of the National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce since its founding in 2000, decided to step down this month to focus on her work as a consultant. Vera built the Clearinghouse into the premier information resource center for issues related to the direct-care workforce. She will work as an empowerment coach and a consultant to various organizations, including PHI, the parent organization of the Clearinghouse. She will also remain involved in the direct-care workforce movement as a member of the board of the Direct Care Alliance.
We are deeply grateful to Vera for her contribution to PHI -- and to the movement to improve the quality of direct-care jobs in long-term care.
|
|
|
|
 |
Supreme Court Rules Against Overtime, Minimum Wage for Home Care Aides
"A retired home health aide who sued her employer for unpaid overtime lost big this week in the Supreme Court -- and so did fairness and the health care system," said an editorial in the June 15 New York Times.
The Court's 9-0 ruling on Long Island Care at Home v. Coke declared that home care aides who work for agencies and other "third-party" employers are not required to receive minimum wage or overtime protection under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The June 11 ruling did not address the question of whether it was fair to exempt home care workers from FLSA rules. Instead, it focused on whether the U.S. Department of Labor had been correct in saying that Congress didn't intend to include these workers when it extended the FLSA in 1974 to cover many previously uncovered "domestic service" workers.
The ruling "underscores how unprepared we are to care for the millions of seniors who will want to live at home instead of institutions," said Gerry Hudson, a vice president of the Service Employees International Union, in a Washington Post article on the ruling and its likely aftermath. "If we are to avert a home-care crisis, we must invest in living wages and health care coverage."
The court's decision was not necessarily the final word on the issue. Individual states can cover these workers under their own fair labor standards, and Congress may make a different determination as to whether these workers are entitled to FLSA coverage.
|
 |
|
DCA Offers Small Grants to Worker Associations, Coalitions
The Direct Care Alliance (DCA) will award several small grants -- up to $5,000 per applicant -- this summer to groups that are working to empower direct-care workers.
The grants will support established or newly formed direct-care worker associations and coalitions that bring together workers, disability and aging consumers, and employers. They will be issued beginning this August and ending when funds are exhausted.
For more information or an application form, visit the DCA website or call 718-928-2963. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit applications no later than July 16, 2007.
|
|
|
Pennsylvania Senator Lends an Ear to Direct-Care Workers
The June 18 meeting between U.S. Senator Robert Casey Jr. and a standing-room-only roomful of direct-care workers arranged by hospice aide Brenda Nachtway at her Pennsylvania hospital was a resounding success. "He said he learned a lot and was going to go back to Washington and see what he could do to make things better," says Nachtway.
Approximately 100 people, most of them CNAs, home health aides, personal care attendants, and other direct-care workers, gathered at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg in answer to the senator's request for an informational session. Attendees told the senator about having no health insurance for themselves or their families, having too little time to spend with the people they assist because of staffing shortages, and being forced to leave the work they love because of on-the-job injuries, Nachtway reports. They also talked about the inadequate pay and training.
After listening to their concerns, the senator thanked the workers for the crucial role they play. He also talked "quite a bit," says Nachtway, about his gratitude toward the direct-care workers who assisted his father toward the end of his life. "I think, in the end, one of the real solutions to this is to change how we think about these workers," the senator is quoted as saying in a Daily Item article. "Their status has to be elevated.... It is a profession and it should be treated as a profession."
|
|
|
Montana Raises Direct-Care Wages
The Montana budget bill we told you about in last week's Quality Jobs/Quality Care news alert also included a wage increase for direct-care workers. An additional $10 million will be added to Medicaid reimbursement rates and earmarked to raise wages of direct-care workers in nursing homes, group homes and other Medicaid-funded long-term care provider organizations.
The increases, which take effect next month, are aimed at bringing all direct-care wages up to a minimum wage of $8.50 an hour. All direct-care workers in these Medicaid-funded organizations will get a raise of about 50 cents an hour, regardless of how much they are currently paid.
President Bill Woody of Nightingale Nursing, the provider organization that pushed for the direct-care worker health insurance, calls the wage increase "more evidence that the Montana legislature recognizes that the only way for businesses such as ours to compete in the labor market is to offer a balanced compensation package that includes benefits and a competitive wage."
|
|
|
Long-Term Care: It's a Woman Thing
A two-page AARP Public Policy Institute fact sheet compiles facts about women as long-term care clients and caregivers, noting that women are more likely than men to take on both of those roles at some point in their lives.
Women & Long-Term Care notes that more than 70 percent of nursing home residents, almost two-thirds of people receiving home care, the great majority of informal caregivers and about 90 percent of frontline paid caregivers are women. It also outlines common challenges faced by female caregivers and care recipients.
|
|
|
Poverty Plagues Direct-Care Workers
"To stem turnover and provide quality services to young children and the elderly, job conditions among the direct care and child care workforce must improve, and increasing wages is a promising place to start," says Low Wages Prevalent in Direct Care and Child Care Workforce.
The 12-page analysis, which was published by the Carsey Institute, looks at the economic well-being of direct-care workers and child care workers, noting that both are "low-wage, predominantly female care giving occupations plagued by high turnover." It also lists statistics about the workers, saying that more than one-quarter of all direct-care workers lack health insurance, and nearly half live in or near poverty, with family incomes of twice the federal poverty level or less.
The data was taken from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey.
|
|
|
Making Empowerment Teams Work
Creating work teams that empower certified nursing assistants appears to have a positive effect on CNA performance, according to "Consequences of Empowered CNA Teams in Nursing Home Settings: A Longitudinal Assessment." However, consistent management involvement and follow-up is key.
"If nurse management members did not provide routine procedures for involving the CNAs in decision making, or if nurse management members did not respond routinely to the notes taken at empowered work team meetings, then the CNAs displayed less satisfaction with the teams," write authors Dale E. Yeatts and Cynthia M. Cready. "Thus, this suggests that those nursing home managers seeking to improve the job attitudes of their CNAs should not turn to empowered work teams for this unless they are willing to implement the appropriate organizational and management conditions along with the teams themselves."
The authors found that the empowered work teams allowed CNAs to "become more aware of resident health conditions, by providing them with more information on the special care needs of residents, by giving them the opportunity to question the poor performance of negligent team members, by giving them the time needed to clear up misinformation and communication, and because the team members were more willing to carry out decisions that they participated in making."
The article, which was published in The Gerontologist 2007 47: 323-339, is free only to subscribers; others must pay to download a copy.
|
|
|
Learning What Motivates Second-Career CNAs
Older workers looking for a second career are little understood as a group, but they make promising candidates for direct-care work, according to "Second-Career CNAs in Nursing Homes: Tapping an Underused Resource". The article describes characteristics of CNAs for whom direct-care is a second career, along with their perceptions of their work and factors affecting their choice of employment. It was based on interviews with 17 employees at 5 nursing homes.
"The importance of calling, mission, and altruistic motive to second-career CNAs is evident," say authors Karen Pennington and colleagues. They recommend that nursing home administrators learn more about what motivates this cohort and how to adopt the "more supportive leadership style" that second-career workers would likely find more appealing.
Published in the June issue of Journal of Gerontological Nursing, the article is free only to subscribers; others must pay to download a copy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
June 29-August 1, 2007
National Association of Area Agencies on Aging Conference, San Francisco, CA
August 10, 2007
Is a Caring Society Possible? Mobilizing for Social Change, New York City, NY
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
