Guest MINDSETTER™ Ward: Do Not Pass Paid Sick Leave Legislation Yet
Sunday, September 17, 2017
As an owner of a home care agency, I have lived through good times and bad in my business, but I have never been as insulted and hurt as a provider of Medicaid services for pediatric and adult patients as I am today. On Tuesday, it is anticipated that the General Assembly will pass legislation to mandate employer to another uncompensated mandate via the paid sick leave bill. However, companies like mine all across Rhode Island that deliver healthcare in the homes of the state’s patients cannot afford to comply with any paid sick leave law without it directly attributed to a Medicaid reimbursement mechanism. This mechanism is not proposed as there has been zero economic analysis by the General Assembly on the impact of this legislation on industries such as home care.
Since 2002, home care agencies have seen only a 75 cent per hour increase in pediatric nursing reimbursements while the average wage since then has increased approximately $12 per hour. This average includes the state’s hospitals, the private hospitals, and nursing homes where wages have continuously climbed while home care nurses’ wages remain stagnant. Under current reimbursement rates, I pay the nurses that work for my company a wage of about $25 per hour, which is $11 lower than the average. This is because previous and current gubernatorial administrations and the General Assembly have not taken meaningful action to revert the home care access crisis and especially our nursing shortage.
To make matters worse, Governor Raimondo has established additional mandates such as the electronic visit verification program, years ahead of a federal mandate, that has not proven that there is any malicious business practices leading to fraud, waste or abuse by the surviving home care providers in our ailing state. Compound this with skyrocketing workers’ compensation insurance rates, utility costs, rent, professional and general liability insurance rates, compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s mandate on offering health insurance, time and travel mandates, and taxes, it is a wonder how there are home care agencies remaining in state. The answer is actually quite simple. It is because home care providers have transitioned from being healthcare providers to the state’s interest-free lending institutions in order to maintain operations. To stay operational, companies like mine have to subsidize the Medicaid program through other payor sources, maximizing lines of credit and sacrificing our own pay and our own obligations to our families to ensure that patients receive care and that our direct care staff have a paycheck at the end of the week.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThere always seems to be money in the General Fund for legislative leadership and the Governor to fund their priorities regardless of soft revenue projections and structural deficits, such as free college tuition and reduction of municipal car taxes. However, when it comes to meaningful funding to care for the state’s patients, many of whom paid into the system for decades until they retired, have now outlived their resources and need support to remain safe at home with my company’s services, our Governor, Speaker and Senate President cry poverty ad nauseam. Yet, what about the home care agencies in which they are taking advantage of until they go bankrupt, like Homefront Health Care last month and the others that have recently closed? Where can our homebound population go when our state’s leaders have turned their backs on them and the providers that want to deliver their care?
As much as I, along with others in my industry, want to offer our staff a competitive wage and benefits, as well as support initiatives such as paid sick time, home care providers simply cannot afford to do it at this time. I urge the General Assembly to not pass any further mandates, including a paid sick leave law, until they first resolve the UHIP implementation failure and increase home care reimbursement rates to where they are competitive with neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Vincent P. Ward is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Home Care Services of Rhode Island, Inc. based in Woonsocket. He founded his company 21 years ago and delivers Medicaid nursing care services in the homes of Northern Rhode Islanders.
Related Slideshow: The Power List - Health and Education, 2016
Related Articles
- Esserman’s Spiral - Now On Sick Leave in New Haven UPDATED
- The Right to Try Bill & Paid Sick Leave Legislation: This Week at the State House
- Moore: Time to Enact Paid Sick Leave
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Stewart: Progressives Should Refuse to be Captive Caucus, Work With Green Party
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Blank: MBTA Service in RI is Not Very Useful
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Forleo: Rhode Island Looks to Protect Student Journalists
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Gardiner: Republicans Would Ride a Trojan Horse to Repeal Obamacare
- “I Don’t Envy the Voters in the Third Ward” - Guest MINDSETTER™ Mathieu
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Dave Kane: Covering Your Butt 101
- Unfair & Unrealistic Criticism of RI GOP Lawmakers: Guest Mindsetter™ Deckman
- Let’s Pass the Workers’ Cooperative Law in RI: Guest MINDSETTER™ Stewart
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Fine: Why A Late Session Change To The Hospital Conversions Act Is Bad For RI
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Bromberg: The Next Generation of Boy Scouts in R.I.
- Where is the Courtesy of the Council on Post-Secondary Education? CCRI Guest MINDSETTERS™
- “Medicaid is US”—Guest MINDSETTER™ Marino
- Rocky Point Signs a Truly Collaborative Effort: Guest MINDSETTER™ LaCross
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Rep. Ruggiero: Manufacturing is REAL in Rhode Island
- Trump the Demagogue Has to Go: Guest MINDSETTER™ Schoos
- Enough Electric Rate Rhetoric - Guest MINDSETTER™ Handy
- Rhode Island Can Build on Labor Day Victories: Guest MINDSETTER™ Isman
- Exclusion, Whitehouse, and Bailey’s Beach - Guest MINDSETTER™ Mike Araujo
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Taub: Cicilline’s Town Hall Meeting was an Embarrassment
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Schoos: Burdened Tenants, Evictions, & Still No Access to Justice Commission in RI
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Stewart: 2 Unrelated Emails That Speak Volumes About the Governor
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Jim Wright: Donald Trump Killed Heather Heyer
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Tom Kenney: Let Pare Go Before He’s Vested
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sam Bell: Let Matos Lead as Council President
