Gas Prices & Transportation Webinar

from PHI: 



PHI has been covering the effects of rising gas prices on direct-care workers since early this summer. Now, as our nation’s economic crisis grows more severe, the challenge to these low-wage workers has intensified.
The National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center held a webinar earlier this week called “Gas Price Increases & Other Transportation Challenges for Direct Service Workers.” The presentation included an overview of the problem, a description of approaches used by states and providers to address the issue, and information on related Medicaid reimbursement policies and options.
On one slide of the powerpoint used in the webinar, we learn the following about the impact of rising gas prices on area agencies on aging:
  • over 50% said they have cut back on programs
  • 90% say they expect to make cuts in the 2009 fiscal year
  • 70% say it is more difficult to recruit
For more information, download the 18-slide powerpoint (ppt 373k) used in the presentation.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/

Home Care Nurses Drive More Miles For Their Job Each Week Than The Average UPS Driver, USA

A study released today by the Washington D.C.-based National Association for Home Care and Hospice shows that the nurses, therapists, home care aides and others who serve elderly and disabled patients in their homes drive, on average, more miles annually than many driving professionals including UPS drivers.

"Caring for over seven million patients annually with 428 million visits, these dedicated providers of home care and hospice are feeling the same pain at the pump as other consumers, but they carry the added burden of the Administration's deep cuts into Medicare and Medicaid benefits, says Val J. Halamadaris, President of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC*). "These draconian cuts ignored the cost of living increases, chief among these is the rising price of gasoline -- a commodity most essential for these traveling 'road warriors' of mercy. Home care patients are homebound - they are so sick, so chronically ill, they cannot leave their homes without assistance. If nurses do not get in their cars to visit them, there is no way to reach them. What will be precipitated is a full-scale national emergency," added Halamadaris.Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Out of Gas?

Everywhere I go, people are talking about how the high price of gas is affecting home care workers and agencies. Organizations are contacting me and my colleagues for ideas on how to deal with it, so I’d be very interested to hear from people in other parts of the country. How are employers and workers and clients dealing with it? Are any states planning a response to this crisis? If so, what’s being considered?

Four-dollar-a-gallon gasoline exacerbates all recruitment and retention problems, and I fear that it forces workers to make some very difficult choices. Employers are calling workers to offer them cases and having the workers do the gas calculations and say “I can’t afford to take this one.” Home care aides are seeing their co-workers go to other jobs where they don’t have such stressful transportation issues.

Here in Michigan, in the waiver program that funds home care for people who are eligible for nursing home services, I’m hearing that the only time a worker must be paid for transportation is when they’re driving the client, taking them shopping or the doctor or the pharmacy or something like that. People aren’t getting paid for all the driving they have to do just to get to their clients.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/