ALBANY – With one week left before the State Legislature adjourns, HCA is urging action on several priority bills for home care, hospice and Managed Long Term Care services and supports.
HCA has worked with legislative offices and partners on bills that would provide for: Medicaid rate stability and benchmarks; efficiencies in home care aide in-service reporting; workforce supports; sepsis prevention; and public health and health disparities initiatives. (Background on each of these bills and their rationale are shown in a table at https://tinyurl.com/yyxet48h.)
“System-wide underpayments and fund-flow shortfalls need to be addressed throughout New York’s home care system,” said HCA President and CEO Al Cardillo. “Meanwhile, major workforce demands for nurses, therapists and home health aides must be met in order to ensure access to services, especially for individuals needing care after hospitalizations, or to prevent institutional care episodes.”
Specifically, “standards and benchmarks are needed for reimbursement rate stability across the various payor systems that cover cost-effective home care services for the elderly and lower-income New Yorkers,” he added.
“Along with promoting home care and hospice occupations, a competitive labor analysis and strategic funding investments are also needed, so that recruitment and retention incentives reach the regions, disciplines or other demographics where shortages are most acute – and where lack of home care is unduly costing the Medicaid program,” he added.
The package of HCA-supported and advanced legislation also strategically incorporates home care into state and community measures for public health, prevention and primary care.
“Better deployment of home care to address public health problems – such as sepsis prevention and early action – are advancing in the Legislature, but they need a final push for joint passage before the houses adjourn,” Cardillo added.
HCA is a statewide health organization comprised of nearly 400 member providers and organizations delivering home and community-based care to several hundred thousand New Yorkers annually. HCA works to support providers in the delivery of high quality, cost-effective home and community-based care for the state’s citizens. HCA providers include hospitals, nursing homes, free-standing agencies and health systems which operate Certified Home Health Agencies, Licensed Home Care Services Agencies, Managed Long Term Care Plans, Hospices, Long Term Home Health Care Programs, waiver programs, and an array of allied, supportive services entities.
To learn more about HCA, visit https://hca-nys.org/.
Contact:
Roger L. Noyes
Director of Communications
Home Care Association of New York State (HCA)
rnoyes@hcanys.org
(518) 810-0665