Last week, the Governor’s Task Force on Caregiving held a public hearing on policy proposals aimed at strengthening Wisconsin’s direct care workforce. Home health care providers are hoping for more reimbursement.
Jayne Thill works for Ascension at Home in Marshfield and is vice-chair for Wisconsin Association for Home Health Care. She says they haven't had an increase in reimbursement for Medicaid patients for more than 10 years. She says expenses have grown by 32 percent in that time.
Thill says the lower pay makes it harder to find help..
"It takes a special kind of person. Not all health care people feel comfortable going into a patient's home where you are really in their environment rather than in an environment that we control, say, in a hospital or health care setting..."
RNs working in home health settings make up just 6 percent of the total nursing workforce in the state.Nationally, that number is nearly 13 percent of the total nursing workforce.
Thill says lower reimbursements find home care agencies closing which makes providing care that much more difficult to find....
"..trying to keep that person in their home, always trying to keep an eye on a safety factor. But it's always much less expensive that if a person has to go to a nursing home or assisted living facility..."
She thinks home care will grow as patients prefer to stay in their homes as long as possible, especially with the COVID-19 problems. The Task Force is set to meet through October.
