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Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI) have introduced the “Home and Community Balancing Incentives Act,” a bill that would offer enhanced federal Medicaid matching rates to states that are willing to implement home and community-based health care programs.

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Key committees in the House and Senate have unveiled plans to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care. In the Senate Senate Finance has released three papers outlining reform options and will soon choose among these to craft their legislation. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has released a [...]

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On May 26, after months of debate among state lawmakers, Iowa Gov. Chet Culver signed into law a bill that will impose a quality assurance fee on all for-profit and nonprofit nursing homes in order to leverage matching federal money. The state’s direct-care workers are among those who are expected to benefit.

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By Tameshia Bridges, Michigan Senior Workforce Advocate This tax year, PHI’s Michigan office launched the Earn, Keep, Save MORE outreach campaign, an effort to increase income for direct-care workers. The campaign equipped employers with information and resources they could use to educate their staff about federal and state earned income tax credits (EITC) and free [...]

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As panic spread last month about a potential swine flu epidemic, Americans were advised to stay home if they were feeling ill. But for millions of workers who receive no paid sick days — including large percentages of direct-care workers — taking a day off from work can be a hard decision as it directly [...]

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A report titled Nurses Involvement in Nursing Home Culture Change: Overcoming Barriers, Advancing Opportunities has been released by The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University College of Nursing. The paper summarizes a 2008 expert panel discussion convened by the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing in collaboration with the Coalition for Geriatric Nursing [...]

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