healthcare worker with clipboard in foreground/patient in background

A University of Kansas researcher is launching a four-year study to collect data on the number of direct caregivers in the U.S. in an effort to raise their stature in the economy.

Misty Heggeness, associate professor of public affairs & administration and co-director of the Kansas Population Center in KU’s Institute for Policy & Social Research, plans to gather statistics on the direct care workforce to be included on a dashboard to help policymakers respond to care gaps at the local and national levels. 

Misty Heggeness

“I think these statistics are so critical to improve our understanding of what is going on around the underbelly of our economy and the wellbeing of our society,” Heggeness told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. 

Data on the exact size of the direct workforce is sketchy at best. PHI National, which tracks the industry, estimates there are roughly 4.7 million direct care workers providing care in private homes, residential care homes and nursing homes. The data is culled from Department of Labor statistics. However, it does not include caregivers who are paid cash under the table and make up what is known as the gray economy, nor does it include unpaid care provided by families and friends. 

Heggeness hopes to identify some workers in the gray economy by comparing Internal Revenue Service data with information gleaned from Bureau of Labor Statistics Household Surveys. But counting the number of family caregivers could be a bigger challenge Heggeness acknowledged. Still, she said defining that cohort is crucial.

“I think it is really important that we get a bigger grasp on that piece of the puzzle,” Heggeness said of unpaid caregivers. “If we’re not reporting on care work when it’s something people aren’t getting paid to do, we’re really not accurately capturing the health of our economy.” 

A $762,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is funding the first two years of the project, which Heggeness said should provide a better snapshot of the direct care industry than what is available today. She said additional funding for the remaining two years of the project would help her dig deeper into administrative records and electronic health files to produce more detailed estimates of the caregiver workforce. 

Heggeness said she hopes the dashboard will help policymakers at all levels develop solutions to the caregiver shortage, especially in rural areas where the caregiver crisis is more dire.