Home care providers in New York are planning their next move after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) earlier this month signed a fiscal year 2023-2024 state budget that gives all healthcare sectors except home health and hospice Medicaid rate increases.
“That’s a very disappointing result,” Al Cardillo, president and CEO of the Home Care Association of New York State, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. He added, “To increase funding for the sectors and not increase it for home care only expands the divide between those other sectors and home care’s capability to recruit and sustain staff and meet its other obligations.”
In a memo to members, the association said the budget “glaringly omitted” home health and hospice from the list of additional investments. Specifically, the budget increased Medicaid rates for hospital inpatient services by 7.5%, hospital outpatient services by 6.5%, nursing home services by 7.5% and assisted living program services by 6.5%.
Cardillo talked about the acute care and post-acute care workforce crisis in the state that COVID-19 worsened.
“I would say the biggest disappointment in the budget is that you’ve got really a crisis in the healthcare system,” he said. “You do not have a plan that is responsive to that. You have some things around the edges and even those things around the edges omitted consideration of home care.”
In the immediate aftermath of the budget, the association wants the Legislature to introduce legislation that would provide annual operating state aid to certified home health agencies, hospices and licensed home care services agencies to assist them in every region of the state to meet community meet.
“Whether it’s services, special populations, addressing health disparities, operating training programs, things that are really needed in order to try to meet the need,” Cardillo explained. “That would also include workforce- related initiatives to all of the disciplines that are within home care.”
There were some positive aspects of the budget, Cardillo noted. Thanks to “Fair Pay” advocacy efforts, the final budget established a “home care minimum wage” for aides that will increase incrementally from 2024 to 2027. A home care aide wage parity benefit level, which the governor trimmed in relevant areas by $1.55, will further boost total compensation. In New York City, total compensation will be $21.09 in 2024, $21.64 in 2025 and $22.19 in 2026.
Also in a win for home care, the Legislature rejected the governor’s plan to eliminate the Medicaid managed care and managed long-term care quality pools, Cardillo said.
