With major changes imminent around how health care is delivered, Congress is considering how to strengthen the health care workforce.

To support a cohesive federal workforce development policy, the Senate bill includes the creation of a National Health Care Workforce Commission.

The Commission, if legislation is enacted, will:

• serve as a national resource to Congress, the President, and the states;
• coordinate work among the key federal agencies;
• examine the education, training, and future needs of the health care workforce;
• and gather data on the health care workforce in order to identify ways to improve access to services, including research on supply and demand and strategies to address workforce care gaps.

“Clearly the direct-care workforce requires immediate policy attention if the needs of aging consumers are to be met in the next ten years,” said PHI Director of Government Affairs Carol Regan. “Yet the tendency of federal reform is to emphasize the primary and acute care needs of the population and, by default, place long-term care needs on the backburner.”

PHI worked with key Congressional offices this spring when legislation was being drafted to ensure that direct-care workers were included on the Workforce Commission’s list of occupational definitions. Inclusion of a direct-care worker definition would require the National Commission to focus on this workforce group.

PHI recommended that direct-care workers be included in the list of occupations that deserved “priority” attention.

Senators Robert Casey (D-PA), Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Russ Feingold (D-WI) have drafted an amendment that will ensure that direct-care workers are listed among the priority occupations, along with five others — nursing, oral health care, mental and behavioral health, allied and public health, and emergency medical services — for the work of the National Commission.

PHI has worked with the Direct Care Alliance to gather support among national and state organizations (pdf) for this amendment.

For more information, contact Carol Regan, PHI Director of Government Affairs, at cregan@phinational.org.