The success of Consumer Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) is largely dependent on consumers’ ability to hire and retain workers. Because of a growing wage gap, this ability is clearly being threatened and would compromise the integrity of the entire self-sustaining independent paradigm of
Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program which my agency Concepts of Independence follows.
Changes at the Federal level by the Department of Labor will require full overtime to workers after 40 hours. While we support this in theory, it is an unfunded mandate that current reimbursement does not allow for. Because workers schedule their own workers, Fiscal Intermediaries will have no ability to restrict hours to limit the cost. If they try, consumers will lose workers who will not be able to afford to work at the lower hours.
The future of CDPA relies on workers’ ability to hire and retain quality workers.
We are seeking two policies that would help make sure consumers can recruit and retain high quality workers:
1. Fund a pass-through from the State to fiscal intermediaries such as Concepts of $1.35/hr., $1.94/hr. in New York City. The difference in the amounts accounts for costs not factored into the Medicaid rate for fiscal intermediaries in New York City.
2. Require the Commissioner of Health and the Commissioner of Labor to establish a regional rate for personal assistants, based on the cost of living and other factors, and require managed care companies to reimburse at a level that allows fiscal intermediaries to reimburse consumer’s workers
at that rate.
Community First Choice proposed legislation provides New York State an extra 6% in Federal Matching funds for Medicaid. This can be used to pay for the proposal, which we estimate would cost $33 million. Revenues from CFC could be as high as $350 million, if fully implemented. Community First Choice actually mandates in line with Olmstead that supportive services for
consumers and patients with disabilities be provided within the home and community setting.
When the Department of Health issued their regulations for CDPA in 2011, they stated that CDPA was $2.16/hr. less expensive than traditional personal care, and that the savings grow with increasingly higher skilled levels of care. This means that even at the higher level of reimbursement, the program is still the most cost-effective means of providing community-based long term care.
People performing traditional personal care tasks are now receiving substantially more than those
doing personal care to nursing tasks, making it harder for consumers using the CDPA model to find and keep essential workers.
Salaries at the current level are threatened:
1. New Federal will dramatically change consumers’ ability to hire workers and increase the costs associated by requiring full time and a half. This unfunded mandate from the Federal government will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement.
2.Worker’s Compensation costs are going up 40%.
3.Unemployment costs are going up 20%.
4. Fiscal Intermediaries work on approximately 10-12% administrative overhead. The only place they have room to trim is worker wages.
Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program which my agency Concepts of Independence follows.
Changes at the Federal level by the Department of Labor will require full overtime to workers after 40 hours. While we support this in theory, it is an unfunded mandate that current reimbursement does not allow for. Because workers schedule their own workers, Fiscal Intermediaries will have no ability to restrict hours to limit the cost. If they try, consumers will lose workers who will not be able to afford to work at the lower hours.
The future of CDPA relies on workers’ ability to hire and retain quality workers.
We are seeking two policies that would help make sure consumers can recruit and retain high quality workers:
1. Fund a pass-through from the State to fiscal intermediaries such as Concepts of $1.35/hr., $1.94/hr. in New York City. The difference in the amounts accounts for costs not factored into the Medicaid rate for fiscal intermediaries in New York City.
2. Require the Commissioner of Health and the Commissioner of Labor to establish a regional rate for personal assistants, based on the cost of living and other factors, and require managed care companies to reimburse at a level that allows fiscal intermediaries to reimburse consumer’s workers
at that rate.
Community First Choice proposed legislation provides New York State an extra 6% in Federal Matching funds for Medicaid. This can be used to pay for the proposal, which we estimate would cost $33 million. Revenues from CFC could be as high as $350 million, if fully implemented. Community First Choice actually mandates in line with Olmstead that supportive services for
consumers and patients with disabilities be provided within the home and community setting.
When the Department of Health issued their regulations for CDPA in 2011, they stated that CDPA was $2.16/hr. less expensive than traditional personal care, and that the savings grow with increasingly higher skilled levels of care. This means that even at the higher level of reimbursement, the program is still the most cost-effective means of providing community-based long term care.
People performing traditional personal care tasks are now receiving substantially more than those
doing personal care to nursing tasks, making it harder for consumers using the CDPA model to find and keep essential workers.
Salaries at the current level are threatened:
1. New Federal will dramatically change consumers’ ability to hire workers and increase the costs associated by requiring full time and a half. This unfunded mandate from the Federal government will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement.
2.Worker’s Compensation costs are going up 40%.
3.Unemployment costs are going up 20%.
4. Fiscal Intermediaries work on approximately 10-12% administrative overhead. The only place they have room to trim is worker wages.
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