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To inform stakeholders of urgent, direct-care workforce advocacy issues, PHI PolicyWorks has introduced the PHI Action Alert.

This new alert email will be sent to subscribers when timely action is needed on direct-care workforce issues, such as Medicaid coverage, the Older Americans Act, the companionship exemption, the CLASS Act, and more.

Click here to subscribe to the PHI Action Alert.

– by Deane Beebe

At nearly 88,000 strong, direct-care workers comprise Wisconsin’s largest workforce — yet many earn wages low enough to qualify for public benefit programs, according to a fact sheet released by PHI this month.

The median hourly wage for home health aides, for example, is just $10.35, while personal care aides earn $9.62 an hour. Both wage levels are lower than 200% of the federal poverty level ($10.42).

Due to those low wages — as well as the fact that many direct-care workers can only find part-time employment — more than 40 percent of Wisconsin’s direct-care workers qualify for state and federal assistance programs, such as food stamps or Medicaid.

The estimated cost of these public benefits is more than $180 million — the equivalent of a $1 to $2 public subsidy for every hour worked by a Wisconsin direct-care worker, the PHI fact sheet reports.

Other Findings

Wisconsin’s direct-care workforce is its single largest occupational grouping, at 87,797. (Retail salespersons are next, at 76,180.)

Included within those 87,797 direct-care workers are:

• 37,630 nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants;
• 22,080 home health aides;
• 19,630 agency-employed personal care aides; and
• 8,457 independent providers in public programs.

According to the fact sheet, direct-care workers comprise nearly one-third (32 percent) of Wisconsin’s overall health care workforce.

PHI’s analysis also shows that direct-care workers’ wages are declining. In 2000, for example, personal care aides earned an inflation-adjusted median wage of $10.69 an hour — more than a full dollar higher than in 2010.

Fact Sheets Support Advocacy Efforts

The Wisconsin fact sheet is one in an ongoing series of PHI fact sheets providing overviews of the direct-care workforce in select states.

It was funded by a Health Care Workforce Development Grant from the state of Wisconsin.

Stakeholders in Wisconsin say that the fact sheet will be used to educate state legislators about Wisconsin’s direct-care workforce.

For information on direct-care workers in each of the 50 states, visit the PHI State Data Center.

– by Matthew Ozga

Massachusetts State House in Boston

Massachusetts lawmakers heard testimony on November 15 on a Senate bill to establish a task force to ensure that there is an adequate direct-care workforce to meet the rising demand for long-term services and supports in the state.

The proposed direct-care task force — comprised of representatives from state agencies that employ or contract for direct-care services — would seek to gather accurate data across the current workforce, including:

• the number of workers,
• turnover and vacancy rates, and
• wages and benefits.

The task force would also:

• assess the state’s current training and credentialing infrastructure;
• develop workforce policies that ensure an adequate supply of frontline caregivers, especially in home and community-based settings; and
• report their findings to the governor and legislature by December 31, 2012.

“We Need to Ensure These Are Good Jobs”

“Families depend on these workers to care for their loved ones — often so that they can work themselves,” said State Senator Pat Jehlen, co-chair of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Elder Affairs, who introduced “An Act to Establish a Task Force Relative to the Commonwealth’s Direct-Care Workforce” (S.45).

“If Massachusetts is going to meet the rapidly growing demand for this workforce, we need to ensure that these jobs are good jobs with decent wages, health coverage, better training, and opportunities for career advancement,” she said.

Senator Jehlen Presents Case in the Globe

 
An op-ed by Senator Jehlen (left) entitled “Is Massachusetts Prepared to Care?” was published by The Boston Globe a day before the hearing.

Massachusetts’ nearly 104,000 direct-care workers comprise the largest occupational group in the state today. The demand for this workforce is expected to grow in the state by at least 21 percent by 2018.

Poor wages, however, will make it difficult to attract workers. The median hourly wages for home care aides and personal care attendants was $12.23 and $12.48, respectively, and $13.53 for nursing aides, in Massachusetts in 2010. The median hourly wage for all occupations in the state was $20.13.

“Not Able to Access Healthcare Ourselves”

In testimony (pdf) delivered to the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities, Victoria Entzminger, a personal care attendant employed to care for her nephew with multiple disabilities, said:

“I am proud to provide him with this care, but I am struggling myself. Personal care attendants do not receive any health insurance through our jobs. While we provide healthcare supports to consumers, We often are not able to access healthcare ourselves.”

Also testifying on behalf of the bill were:

• Lisa Gurgone, executive director, Massachusetts Council for Home Care Aide Services
• Paul Dzialo, president/CEO, Affinity Home Health Care
• Russ Davis, executive director, Jobs with Justice

For more information about the bill — and the direct-care workforce in Massachusetts in general, including downloadable charts and graphs — visit PHI Massachusetts on the PHI PolicyWorks website.

– by Deane Beebe

PHI Michigan, a new section of the PHI PolicyWorks website, provides comprehensive coverage of Michigan’s direct-care workforce — the state’s fastest-growing occupational group — and highlights the efforts of PHI’s Michigan team to promote quality care through quality jobs in the state.

“Our Michigan-based staff are excited to add this resource to our efforts to secure quality long-term services and supports through quality direct-care jobs,” said PHI Midwest Director Hollis Turnham.

The PHI Michigan site contains numerous resources designed to better serve that workforce and its stakeholders, including:

• workforce facts;
• PHI publications related to the state’s direct-care workforce;
• information on Earn, Keep, Save MORE!, a PHI Michigan campaign that increases direct-care workers’ awareness of the numerous tax credits and free tax preparation services available to them;
• Michigan news about worker training and culture change efforts; and
• updates on state policy relevant to quality care and quality jobs.

Users can also check the PHI Michigan news feed for the most recent developments in the state, or sign up on the portal’s homepage for the PHI Michigan News service.

Earlier this year, PHI launched a similar portal spotlighting the efforts of its regional staff in New York. A portal focusing on Massachusetts is in development.

More information on Michigan’s direct-care workforce is available at the brand-new PHI State Data Center.

– by Matthew Ozga

The CMS/National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center will unveil the PHI State Data Center at a webinar that will feature a discussion with PHI Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey and other presenters on strategies that states can use to impact workforce size, wages and benefits:

September 19
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EST
Call-in number: 800- 260-0702
Code: 213233
There is no charge for the webinar but registration is required.

In a letter (pdf) to President Obama, PHI President Steven Dawson explains why investment in quality direct-care jobs presents a strong opportunity to put thousands of people back to work.

The already-great demand for eldercare/disability services and will only grow as the Baby Boomer generation advances to retirement age. Because of that surging demand, “direct-care jobs are uniquely positioned to help repair and stabilize our faltering economy,” Dawson writes.

The September 8 letter coincided with the unveiling of the Obama administration’s jobs plan during a joint session of Congress.

In the PHI letter, Dawson tells Obama that direct-care jobs must pay family-sustaining wages and provide adequate health benefits.

“We urge you to invest in improving the quality of these jobs by requiring a wage floor for positions created by the investment and by offering health insurance coverage” through Medicaid, Dawson writes.

Investment in quality direct-care jobs has huge positive implications beyond the workers themselves. A strong direct-care workforce supports working family caregivers throughout the country.

When family caregivers know their loved ones are safe and secure under the skillful care of well-trained direct care workers, they can focus on producing maximum value for their employers — and, thus, the nation’s economy.

“In short,” Dawson writes, “the caregiving infrastructure created by the direct-care workforce is as essential to a well-functioning economy — and as worthy of investment — as roads and bridges.”

More information on the eldercare/disability service industry’s untapped potential for job creation can be found in PHI FACTS 2 (pdf).

– by Matthew Ozga