Home Health & Hospice Week
HCBS Funding, Unions Could See Boost From Latest Biden Proposal
Senate gridlock threatens to impact policies. Details are fuzzy, but one main thrust of President Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan proposal is to beef up funding for care provided in the home. Biden “is calling on Congress to put $400 billion toward expanding access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for aging relatives and people with disabilities,” says a fact sheet on the proposal released by the White House. “These investments will help hundreds of thousands of Americans finally obtain the long-term services and support they need, while creating new jobs and offering caregiving workers a long-overdue raise, stronger benefits, and an opportunity to organize or join a union and collectively bargain,” it says. “President Biden’s plan will expand access to home and community-based services (HCBS) and extend the longstanding Money Follows the Person program that supports innovations in the delivery of long-term care,” the fact sheet continues. “The proposed framework is a key step towards President Biden’s goal of enacting his Build Back Better plan” from his presidential campaign, notes law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in online analysis of the proposal. But details remain elusive. “While the proposal requests $400 billion for HCBS, it deliberately does not include any specifics on what shape that investment should take,” points out the disability services trade group The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR). “Beyond mentioning the Money Follows the Person program by name, the Biden Administration is deferring to Congress on whether to invest that much, and how to spend it.” Industry representatives are praising the initiative. “We commend the Biden-Harris administration for calling on Congress to expand access to quality, affordable home- or community-based care for older and disabled Americans on Medicaid,” National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization President Edo Banach says in a release. “NHPCO wholeheartedly agrees that addressing the needs of caregivers and home and community-based care providers is essential.” The Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare “applaud[s] President Biden and his Administration for their plan to strengthen the nation’s home healthcare workforce in their newly released American Jobs Plan,” the advocacy group says. “The Partnership supports efforts to improve patient access to high-quality home care services and looks forward to working with Congress and the Administration on next steps,” it adds. “By making major investments in home health workforce infrastructure, President Biden and Congress have the opportunity to make one of the most important and impactful investments in home care in decades,” said PQHH’s Joanne Cunningham. “As America continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has highlighted the tremendous value of care at home in our nation’s healthcare delivery system, the bold initiatives included in the American Jobs Plan represent an exciting step forward for home-based care.” For example: The Partnership would hope to see workforce recruitment and retention initiatives including funding to improve education and training; career ladder and lattice programs; and assistance with childcare and transportation-related needs of the home health workforce, it says. Home health and hospice providers are less welcoming of the idea of more widespread unionization, they indicate. The proposal’s legislative path remains somewhat murky. “It is not yet clear how quickly Congress will be able to move this package to enactment (if at all), but optimistic estimates point to mid-to-late summer,” say attorneys Michael Bell, Jamie Wickett, Robert Glennon, Kolo Rathburn, and staffer Shelley Castle with law firm Hogan Lovells in online analysis. “The odds of 10 Senate Republicans (the number required to overcome a filibuster) voting in favor of the proposal seems close to zero,” the Hogan Lovells attorneys note. That means “Democrats are likely to use Budget Reconciliation to overcome Republican objections in the Senate to passing the massive infrastructure package,” they predict. v Note: The American Jobs Plan fact sheet is at www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan.
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