“Defining Dining … It’s About Me” is the theme of this year’s National Residents’ Rights Week, an annual event sponsored by the Consumer Voice.

The annual event, which has been held since 1981, is designed to “honor residents living in all long-term care facilities,” according to the Consumer Voice’s website.

This year’s Residents’ Rights Week will take place from October 3-9, and will focus on improving residents’ dining experiences.

To promote the event, the Consumer Voice has compiled a cookbook containing recipes that were submitted by various long-term care stakeholders — residents, staff, family members, citizen advocates, and more.

More information about National Residents’ Rights Week, including a downloadable packet of materials to help facilities plan events for the week, are available at the Consumer Voice’s website.

Within hours of the U.S. House of Representatives passing legislation to extend the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) increase to states, President Obama signed the bill into law.

By extending FMAP through the end of 2011, the federal government will distribute an additional $16.1 billion in Medicaid funding to states.

House Votes Along Party Lines

The representatives voted 247 to 161 to approve the state-aid package (H.R. 1586) during a special emergency session held on August 10. Just two Republicans voted to provide relief to the cash-strapped states; only six Democrats voted against the bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the representatives back to Washington, D.C., from summer recess to vote on the legislation, after the Senate unexpectedly passed it.

“We are pleased that Congress did the right thing and voted in favor of extending additional funding to states for their Medicaid programs, funds essential to preventing further erosion of coverage and services,” said PHI Government Relations Director Carol Regan.

“However, this was accomplished, in part, by rolling back a temporary increase in food stamps,” Regan added. “We will work with our allies in the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations to restore assistance to low-income families relying on this program.”

Offsetting the Cost

To offset the cost of the state-aid package, several provisions are in place, including accelerating the timetable to halt temporary increases in food assistance benefits.

The $26 billion bill has been called the Jobs Bill, because it also includes $10 billion for states to prevent teacher and other public service worker layoffs due to shortfalls in state budgets.

A chart (pdf) on how the funding will be allocated in each state is available from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

– by Deane Beebe

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will improve the health care of nearly 30 million women in the U.S., according to an issue brief published by The Commonwealth Fund.

By the time the law fully takes effect in 2014, up to 15 million uninsured women will be eligible for subsidized coverage, and an additional 14.5 million insured women will see improved coverage and/or reduced premiums.

Low-income women will especially benefit from the law, the issue brief states.

President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act this past March as part of his administration’s effort to enact national health reform.

Implications for Direct-Care Workforce

Perhaps the most significant provision of the act will be an expansion of Medicaid eligibility to cover adults earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level (currently about $14,400 for a single adult).

An estimated 8.2 million uninsured women between the ages of 18 and 64 will be eligible for Medicaid when that provision takes effect in January 2014, The Commonwealth Fund report found.

A significant number of these millions of uninsured women are members of the direct-care workforce, which is 90 percent female, PHI research (pdf) suggests.

Approximately one out of four direct-care workers is uninsured, and many of them would be eligible for Medicaid under the new eligibility rules. The median annual income of direct-care workers is just $17,000; personal and home care aides make an average of $12,000 a year.

PHI has compiled a chart (pdf) on other health-reform provisions that will affect the direct-care workforce.

More Helpful Provisions

The Commonwealth Fund’s issue brief details several other provisions that will benefit women.

Beginning September 23, 2010

• Health plans will be required to cover a wide variety of services without requiring cost-sharing. Those services include screenings for breast cancer, and cervical cancer, as well as osteoporosis screenings for women age 65 and older.

Beginning January 1, 2014

• Insurance companies will be required to accept every individual who applies for coverage, and will be forbidden from charging higher premiums based on gender or pre-existing medical conditions.
• Health plans sold through state insurance exchanges will be required to cover maternity and newborn care.

– by Matthew Ozga

The National Center for Gerontological Social Work Education devoted its August newsletter to the role that social workers can play in improving the working conditions of direct-care workers, and by doing so, improving the care for older adults.

The bimonthly issue of Aging Times features two articles on this topic:

Are We Prepared to Care? — PHI President Steven Dawson explains that as Baby Boomers age, many are retiring from the eldercare workforce, leaving an even greater gap in care. Dawson calls for a system reform to recruit and retain direct-care workers and increase collaboration between the direct-care workforce and social workers.

Vital Yet Undervalued: Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Direct-Care Workers — Nancy Wilson of the Baylor College of Medicine and Jane Bavineau of Care for Elders provide recommendations culled from years of practice, policy work, and research for improving the supply and quality of direct-care workers.

Aging Times also references:

Social Work — Direct Care Partnerships Would Improve Care, a PHI Quality Care/Quality Jobs Guest Commentary by Nancy Hooyman, a gerontology professor and dean emeritus at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work.

Thank You, Iman, Hugo, and All of the Nation’s Other Direct-Care Workers, a personal account by The John A. Hartford Foundation Executive Director and Treasurer Corinne Rieder on how two home health aides make it possible for her elderly parents who have multiple health conditions to live at home. This blog post in the Hartford Foundation’s Health AGEnda calls for putting an end to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s companionship exemption.

The National Center for Gerontological Social Work Education’s newsletter also includes a Direct Care Workers Bibliography (Word doc), a 10-page list of suggested readings on direct-care workers.

– by Deane Beebe

The Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association is holding its sixth annual conference on September 16 in Phoenixville, PA.

The all-day conference, entitled the “The Sky’s the Limit: Communication = Teamwork,” features Keynote Speaker David Moreau, a poet and direct-care worker for 30 years.

Concurrent workshops will be held throughout the day, including the PHI Coaching Approach^SM to Communication, which will be led by PHI Training and Organizational Development Specialist Pat Hillebrand. The workshop has been approved for 3.45 contact hours from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

The four-hour, PHI Coaching Approach^SM to Communication workshop will be divided between the morning and afternoon breakout sessions. To receive the ANCC credits, participants are required to attend both two-hour sessions.

The PHI Coaching Approach^SM is a unique approach to improving communication and fostering respectful relationships throughout an organization.

“I am very excited to be able to offer the PA Direct Care Workers Association a workshop in which the participants will have an opportunity to learn and practice effective communication skills as well as receive ANCC contact hours,” Hillebrand said. “I look forward to seeing everyone at the conference.”

To register for the conference, the registration form (pdf) must be completed and mailed to the PA Direct Care Workers Association, with the required conference fee, by September 2.

– by Deane Beebe

The Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) increase is expected to be extended, since the U.S. Senate has voted to pass it.

Without the FMAP extension, many states were planning to cut or even eliminate health care programs serving poor and elderly residents.

The Senate voted on August 5 to pass the federal state-aid package that includes $16.1 billion to extend the FMAP increase through 2011.

First the Senate had to surmount a Republican filibuster — an outcome that seemed unlikely by all accounts just one week ago. Once the Senate voted on August 4 to end the debate, the bill headed to the Senate floor where it passed, 61-39.

Calling Representatives Back for the House Vote

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have already left for summer recess. However, in an uncommon move, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called them back to Washington, D.C. to vote on the measure next week.

Once the measure is passed in the House, as expected, the bill will be sent to President Obama, who has been pushing for its passage.

Extension Will Prevent Layoffs and Service Cuts

The $16.1 billion FMAP increase is part of a larger, $26 billion state-aid package of which $10 million is targeted to prevent teacher and other public service worker layoffs due to shortfalls in state budgets.

The bill was tied up in the Senate until two Maine Republicans, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, joined with Democrats to end debate on the bill.

“At a time when our economy is still regaining its footing and state budgets are strapped, this FMAP extension is critical to maintaining services for elders and people with disabilities, as well as ensuring stability to the direct-care workforce that provides those services,” said Steve Edelstein, PHI’s national policy director.

“We applaud the Senate leadership and Senators Collins and Snowe for putting the needs of our most vulnerable citizens at the forefront and for refusing to let this vital legislation die.”

– by Deane Beebe