Tag: Private Duty Advisory Council

NAHC’s Private Duty Committees Meet

As NAHC’s Private Duty membership has grown, so, too, has the interest from members in getting involved, resulting in the creation of three individual committees. These committees, focusing on Education, Membership, and Policy, will support the Private Duty Advisory Council by submitting recommendations and guidance on priorities.

The current committee members are:

Education:

  • Candyce Slusher, Slusher Consulting – Chairperson
  • Cheryl Graham, Qualicare
  • Michael Javitt, LifeCare Home Health Family
  • Maggie Keen, MissionCare Collective
  • Jessica Nobles, Nobility Care Solutions
  • Guy Tommassi, LIFETIME Care at Home
  • Cris Toscano, BAYADA
  • Julie Wolff, MatrixCare

Membership:

  • Sheila Davis, Always Best Care Senior Services – Chairperson
  • Patti Lewis, Interim Healthcare
  • Sam Smith, BRC Access Care
  • Laura Templeton, Compassus
  • Kim Wilkerson, SimiTree

Policy:

  • Kathleen Smith, Gentiva – Chairperson
  • Renee Bush, Home Care Association of Florida
  • Tabitha Dowd, MAS Home Care
  • Lisa Ferden, Generations
  • Brandi Kurtyka, MissionCare Collective
  • Jim Melancon, Aveanna
  • Kristen Robison, Angels of Care Pediatric
  • Albert Simien, LHC Group
  • Damon Terzaghi, NAHC

Each of the Committee Chairpersons along with Executive Director of Private Duty, Kristen Wheeler, held their inaugural meeting recently to make introductions, approve the Committee’s Guiding Principles, and discuss this year’s goals and initiatives. The Committees will reconvene at the end of this month to finalize those goals for submission to the Council.

Are you interested in getting involved with one or more of the Committees? Let Kristen Wheeler know at kwheeler@nahc.org or at (305) 849-1300.

Notes from the NAHC Private Duty Advisory Council

NAHC’s Private Duty Advisory Council held its monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Co-chairs Brittnei Salerno of La Jolla Nursing Services and Dave Totaro of BAYADA presided over the meeting that featured a legislative and regulatory update from NAHC’s Director of Government Affairs, Calvin McDaniel, along with the latest Medicaid Home and Community Based Services news from Damon Terzaghi, Director of Medicaid HCBS Advocacy at NAHC.

Calvin reported to the group about a number of potential legislation being watched, including the Home Care for Seniors Act as well as the Elizabeth Dole Home Care Act. He also started a discussion about President Biden’s Executive Order (see NAHC Report), which includes a number of directives focused on home-based care.

Following that discussion, Damon updated the Council on Medicaid redeterminations, begun April 1st as a result of the ending of the PHE. Damon wrapped up his report by recommending that everyone working with Medicaid beneficiaries keep a very close eye on information being released as well as deadlines to ensure compliance.

Newly appointed committee chairpersons also provided an update on their respective committees, including:

  • Candyce Slusher of Slusher Consulting for Education;
  • Sheila Davis of Always Best Senior Services for Membership;
  • Neal Kursban of Family and Nursing Care for Governance and Nominating; and,
  • Kathleen Smith of Gentiva Health Services for Policy

All committees will be holding inaugural meetings early in May, expecting to create a meeting schedule for the year as well as agreeing on committee goals and individual charters for each. Serving on a committee is open to all active NAHC Private Duty members in good standing, with the exception of the Governance & Nominating (G&N) Committee. Members of the G&N must be active members of the Private Duty Advisory Council. Anyone interested in participating with Education, Membership, or Policy should reach out to Kristen Wheeler, Executive Director of Private Duty at NAHC, at kwheeler@nahc.org or 305-849-1300.

Information was also shared about NAHC’s upcoming Financial Management Conference, scheduled for July 16-18 in New Orleans. This year’s FMC is the first in the conference’s history to feature a full Private Duty track. Later in the year, NAHC is delighted to report the relaunch of its Private Duty Summit, being held October 15-17 in National Harbor. More information on speakers and the Summit agenda will be released next month.

If you have any questions or would like more information about NAHC’s Private Duty Advisory Council or any of its committees, please contact Kristen Wheeler at kwheeler@nahc.org.

Notes from the Private Duty Advisory Council

NAHC’s Private Duty Advisory Council monthly meeting this week, featuring an update on NAHC’s advocacy efforts as well as potential policies being monitored from Co-chair Brittnei Salerno of La Jolla Nurses Homecare and Executive Director of Private Duty at NAHC Kristen Wheeler. Legislation being watched by the NAHC Advocacy Team includes:

NAHC President William A. Dombi reminded the group that these bills will need to be reintroduced next year for the new Congress. We are very unlikely to see any movement on this legislation during the lame duck session of the current Congress.

Council Co-Chair Brittnei Salerno of La Jolla Nurses Homecare and Private Duty Executive Director Kristen Wheeler shared updates on these items, as well as a regulatory update that may potentially affect providers in the Southeast United States. The US Department of Labor (DOL) announced a new initiative to better enforce violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The campaign aims to improve compliance in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

“The US DOL is determined to ensure these workers are not denied any of their hard-earned wages. Our current initiative combines compliance assistance and enforcement to decrease violations by employers in the care industries,” said DOL’s Wage & Hour Division Regional Administrator Juan Coria. The initiative will focus on resources to educate care workers in the industry along with targeting the misclassification of workers as independent contractors. A public webinar hosted by the DOL on Thursday, November 17, 2022, will review the protections for care workers so that employers and workers alike will understand their rights and responsibilities currently protected by the FLSA. The states being targeted are a result of division investigators identifying violations in nearly 89 percent of investigations completed in home and nursing care completed between 2020 and 2022.

During the state share portion of the meeting, the Council discussed the recently passed $15 minimum wage for Medicaid direct service providers in Florida. Council member Maxine Hochhauser of LHC Group told the group that the Medicaid fee schedule increase simply does not cover the cost of providing services. Expectations are that many Medicaid recipients will no longer have access to care unless the reimbursement rates are increased. The Home Care Association of Florida has joined the Florida Assisted Living Association and the Florida Ambulance Association in challenging the state’s Agency for Healthcare Administration on this requirement, maintaining that the agency did not use a proper rule-making process to define “direct care” workers who would be affected by the wage change. Further information will be shared as it becomes available.

Council members that sit on various workgroups of the Home Care Action Alliance updated the group on the efforts of those groups. Meetings are in their final stages and Project Manager Pat Kelleher is compiling recommendations of the groups. An early December release of these recommendations and action items is on track.

NAHC’s Private Duty Summit is expected to come to fruition in 2023 as a “conference within a conference” at the Annual Conference & Expo in October. The summit will feature robust educational sessions and will be individually branded to ensure attendees understand the separation. However, attendees will also be allowed access to the keynote general sessions as well as the lively trade show hall.

Bill Dombi rounded out the meeting with an update on what’s happening on Capitol Hill with home care legislation.

Interested in being a part of the Private Duty Advisory Council in 2023? Let us know!

Notes from the Private Duty Advisory Council

NAHC’s Private Duty Advisory Council monthly meeting, on Wednesday, September 21,  featured an update on NAHC’s advocacy efforts as well as potential policies being monitored from Co-chair Brittnei Salerno of La Jolla Nurses Homecare and Executive Director of Private Duty at NAHC Kristen Wheeler. Included among those are:

  1. S. 2210 /HR 4131 – Better Care Better Jobs Act
  2. HR 2898 – Home Care Services for Seniors Act
  3. HR 2954 – Enhancing American Retirement Act
  4. HR 4826 – Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
  5. HR 6000 – CURES 2.0 Act
  6. S. 2562 – Choose Home Care Act of 2021
  7. HR 5094 – Nursing Home Workforce Support and Expansion Act of 2021
  8. HR 1909 – Citizenship for Essential Workers Act

Council member Jeff Salter of Caring Senior Service shared his experience at last week’s Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. NAHC hosted well over of 80 attendees representing 27 states that met in person and virtually with over 150 individual congressional meetings. Further Council discussion included NAHC’s collaborative efforts on the Home Care Workforce Action Alliance, which launches meetings of the four individual workgroups focused on home care aides and nurses next week, as well as NAHC’s upcoming Annual Conference & Expo.

Notes from the Private Duty Advisory Council

A meeting earlier this week of the Private Duty Home Care at NAHC Advisory Council produced some interesting discussion on a variety of topics. Below is a brief summary of the discussion.

Legislation & Regulation

  • HR 2898 – Home Care Services for Seniors Act, NAHC has been involved since the beginning (September 2018). This would allow people to use funds in their Health Savings Accounts to pay for home care. In May of this year, the Joint Committee on Taxation released an estimated cost of $202 million over 10 years. NAHC has and continues to support the passage of this bill. Take action now!
  • HR 2954 – Enhancing American Retirement Act or “Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022”. Introduced in May 2021 and would allow people to use their IRA to pay for long-term care insurance premiums.
  • Department of Labor New Independent Contractor Rule – The Initial Final Rule was withdrawn in May 2021 and, in June 2022, the DOL announced its intention to release a new proposed rule. We do not know when that proposed new rule will be released, but we will update you when more information becomes available.

Workforce

  • The Home Care Workforce Action Alliance is meeting in DC on August 3rd with key NAHC staff involved (I’ll be there!). More information to follow but we expect a call for volunteers willing to work with one of the Alliance’s subgroups.

Events