The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act established a National Health Care Workforce Commission (NHCWC) that will serve as a national resource on the nation’s health care workforce for Congress and the president.

On Friday, May 7, a notice (pdf) was published in the Federal Register soliciting letters of nomination for this 15-member commission. Letters of nomination are due by June 30, 2010.

The NHCWC is one of the many provisions to take effect during the first year of the health reform law’s passage; appointments are to be made no later than September 30, 2010.

Appointing the Commission

The 15-member commission will be appointed by the Government Accountability Office‘s Comptroller General of the U.S.

By law, the Commission will include individuals who are nationally recognized in health care labor market analysis including workforce, health financing and economics, health facility management, heath plans and integrated delivery systems, workforce education and training, health care philanthropy, and providers of health care services.

The law requires one representative from:

• Health care workforce and health professionals
• Employers
• Third-party payers
• Individuals skilled in interpretation of health care services and economics research
• Representatives of consumers
• Labor unions
• State or local workforce investment boards
• Educational institutions

The remaining seven members may include additional representatives from the above categories and others deemed appropriate by the Comptroller General.

Defining ‘Direct-Care Worker’

PHI worked hard to get language included in this section of the law that for the first time codifies the definition of direct-care worker in the Public Health Services Act:

DIRECT CARE WORKER. — The term ‘direct care worker’ has the meaning given that term in the 2010 Standard Occupational Classifications of the Department of Labor for Home Health Aides [31-1011], Psychiatric Aides [31-1013], Nursing Assistants [31-1014], and Personal Care Aides [39-9021].

The inclusion of this language means that the direct-care workforce will be included in the Commission’s responsibilities.

Duties of the Commission

The work of the Commission will be critical in:

• collecting and analyzing workforce data;
• projecting the demand for workers;
• determining education and training capacity and infrastructure, and projecting the demand;
• reviewing the implications of new and existing federal policies that affect the health care workforce (including those supported through the Workforce Investment Act); and
• determining the workforce needs of special populations.

Advocates of eldercare/disability services and quality jobs should insist that the Commission include representation from experts in this workforce that now numbers over 3.2 million workers and will reach 4 million by 2016.

– by Carol Regan, PHI Government Affairs Director