More than two dozen proven examples of direct-care worker retention strategies are outlined in a January report from the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA). Read the full story

Evelyn Coke

Evelyn Coke, the New York home care attendant responsible for a 2007 US Supreme Court case challenging the exclusion of home care workers from minimum wage and overtime protections, has died at age 74, according to an article in the New York Times.

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Carol Regan, PHI Government Relations Director, is pleased to see America’s direct-care workforce garnering attention in the health reform debate.

“We wholeheartedly agree that training, better wages, and more opportunities are essential,” she says, highlighting the recent attention given to these issues by Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) and others.

“We also hope that  now, when Congress is debating reforms to our health system, that ensuring access to affordable health coverage for a workforce  twice as likely to be uninsured makes it to the  top of the list.”

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A protester of California's cuts to home care. (photo by Steve Rhodes)

California’s ongoing budget disaster edged nearer to some sort of resolution last week as state lawmakers approved a proposal to close the $25.3 billion gap through a package of 29 pieces of legislation.  The bills included spending cuts, revenue solutions, borrowing, and fund shifts. The state’s In-Home Supportive Services program (IHSS), long recognized as one of the most generous home care programs in the nation, lost $226 million in funding.

The IHSS budget cut is expected to remove 40,000 elderly people and individuals with disabilities — nearly 10 percent of all recipients – completely from the program, to cause 85,000 more recipients to lose domestic services (e.g., laundry, meal preparation, transportation to medical appointments), and to raise the monthly cost for care by as much as $200 for many others. Read the full story

The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) has kicked off a new advocacy campaign that encourages people to host house parties to bring attention to the need for long-term care reform. Read the full story

Hilda Solis

A July 9 New York Times editorial calls for home care aides to receive minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act. As the Times notes, in 2007, the Supreme Court upheld a 1975 labor regulation that defined home care aides as “companions,” but that regulation can be reversed anytime by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. This is the second editorial the Times has published on the issue; the first appeared in January 2009. Read the full story