Wages Adjusted for Inflation: Over the past decade, inflation-adjusted median hourly wages for Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants in Ohio increased by 11 percent, from $8.30 to $9.20. Real wages for Personal Care Aides and Home Health Aides remained virtually unchanged over this time period.
Employer-Sponsored Insurance: Compared to the national civilian workforce, fewer of Ohio’s direct-care workers have access to and use employer-sponsored insurance. Some work for employers that do not offer health insurance. Others work for employers that limit eligibility for health insurance to full-time employees. This creates a barrier for many direct-care workers, especially those in home and community-based settings, who often work only part-time due to the episodic nature of direct-care work. Even workers who do have access to insurance from their employer may find the co-pays and premiums unaffordable.
Executive Order 2007- 23S (pdf): In July 2007, Ohio’s Governor signed an executive order that gives the state’s 7,000 independent home health care workers collective bargaining rights. The order allows independent home care providers, who contract with the state to provide Medicaid-funded services for the elderly and disabled in their homes, to select a union and bargain with the state.
HB 198: This bill calls for an increase to Nursing Home FY2011 rates of $5.70 per Medicaid day. The increase is known as the Workforce Development Incentive Payment and will be used to improve direct-care staff retention and staffing levels, including paying increased wages paid to direct-care staff. The results of this initiative shall be reported by September 30, 2012. (Adopted June 8, 2010)
Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC): Beginning in 2002, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies funded a 4-year demonstration and research project that aimed to improve the direct-care workforce in 5 states: Iowa, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Vermont. A variety of studies and publications are available.
Direct Service Workforce Resource Center – Intensive Technical Assistance: In 2008, the DSW Resource Center provided CMS-funded technical assistance to Ohio to develop an evaluation framework and data collection systems for measuring programmatic outcomes from PATHS (Professional Advancement through Training and Education in Human Services), a voluntary career advancement program for direct support professionals.
Long-Term Care Workforce Initiative: As part of this project, led by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services and Ohio Department of Aging, university faculty with expertise in curriculum development and health and human services research will collaborate with stakeholders to develop a curriculum for a latticed certification program for long-term care direct service workers across disciplines and service sectors. The project will also develop and implement a research agenda for state agencies, policy makers and providers to address long-term direct service needs.
Ohio Home Care Program Provider Directory: Operated by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, this matching service registry provides home care consumers with lists of non-agency personal care aides who have enrolled to provide services in the Ohio Home Care Program.
Ohio PATHS: PATHS (Professional Advancement through Training and Education in Human Services) is a voluntary career advancement program for direct support professionals in Ohio. Its goal is “to create a competency based and credentialed career path for direct support professionals.”
Ohio Workforce Development Workgroup (pdf): As part of Ohio’s Money Follows the Person grant, the state convened a Workforce Development Workgroup to identify issues, develop recommendations, and design processes and protocols related to workforce development. The Workgroup recommends that Ohio implement a Direct Service Worker career lattice model based on core competencies used in the Nurse Career Lattice model developed by the Council on Adult Education and Learning.
Ohio’s Progress Towards a Unified Long-Term Care Budget: This 2010 report reviews recommendations in 6 areas—including workforce—made by the Unified Long-Term Care System Workgroup regarding the establishment of a unified long-term care budget in Ohio.