We are nearing the end of the 2023 Legislative Session, and key lawmakers in both the House and Senate are working to finalize North Carolina’s two-year 2023-2024 Budget.
Thanks to the hard work of Hearts for Home Care Ambassadors, advocates, and our coalition partners, each of our three home care funding priorities are being considered for inclusion in the final budget!
Now, it's time to get these requests across the finish line, and we need your help.
Please take one minute today to sign this petition urging House and Senate Budget Conferees to fully fund home care priorities in the final budget, including funding for:
1) Medicaid aide services under 4 programs,
2) Medicaid private duty nursing services, and
3) Medicaid Innovations Waiver.
Then, share this petition/action alert with your friends, colleagues, and family and urge them to stand up for the more than 58,000 North Carolinians who rely on Medicaid home care services!
Reach out to Cai Yoke at cyoke@heartsforhomecare.com with any questions.
As North Carolinians and a state-wide community of home care advocates, we urge House and Senate Budget Conferees to invest in home care workers – nurses, aides, direct service professionals (DSP) - and the 58,000+ individuals who rely on Medicaid home care programs.
Amidst an overall healthcare workforce crisis, these front-line heroes continue to face the difficult decision to remain in home care or to pursue another job or setting that can pay significantly more.
- Home care staff earn between 20-74% less than their peers in other settings,
- Turnover is well above 50%, impacting continuity of care.
- Almost 1/3 of all authorized hours go unfilled every week due to lack of staff.
It is increasingly common for seniors, individuals living with disabilities and medically fragile children to regularly go without the care they have been authorized to receive due to lack of staff. This puts their health at considerable risk, increases stress and burden on family caregivers, and often results in otherwise preventable hospitalizations that are extremely costly to the state.
As leaders in the NC General Assembly, you’ve invested in the past to support home and community-based services. Now, we ask that you again show that North Carolina is a state that follows through on its commitment to caring for the most vulnerable among us. We urge you to include the following provisions in your 2023-2024 Budget:
- Senate provision: Section 9E.12A – INCREASE PRIVATE DUTY NURSING RATES: $29.33M to increase rates for hourly skilled nursing.
- House provision: Section 9E.12 - MEDICAID PERSONAL CARE SERVICES RATES: $76.7M to increase rates for aide services under four programs – PCS, CAP-DA, CAP-C, CAP-CH.
- Section 9E.15(a) – INCREASE WAGES OF DIRECT CARE WORKERS/INNOVATION WAIVER: $60M to increase wages for direct service professionals (DSP) under the Innovations Waiver.
Thank you for your past support of our issues, and we hope that you will take action again this year because #CareCantWaitNC.