HCAOA The Voice Winter 2020

10 HCAOA The Voice MEMBER NEWS Workforce The clearest present challenge for the home care industry is maintaining an adequate workforce to care for our aging popula - tion. Nationwide, aging experts estimate that about 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day. In order to keep up with their demand for home care services and a general preference for aging- in-place, the home care industry will likely need to fill millions of caregiver jobs. HCAOA will be working with Congress to promote opportunities that exist in the home care industry for American workers. It will also need to encourage Congress to expand legal immigration to address shortages of workers across the long-term care spectrum of providers. Medicaid Coverage President-Elect Biden earlier this summer issued a plan to invest $450 billion in senior care over the next 10 years with a focus on home care. Whether something so significant could get through Congress is open to debate. It is clear, however, that expanding Medicaid (and perhaps Medicare) to provide greater access to home and community-based care will be a topic of discussion in the new Congress. HCAOA will be working to educate Members of Congress and the Biden Administration about the value of home care and the employer-based model its members represent. Additionally, the HCAOA will be monitoring a variety of other tax, health, and labor policies within the Congress and the Biden Administration that may impact the home care community. These include, but are not limited to, the federal minimum wage, paid sick leave, health reform legislation, tax credits for home care services, electronic visit verification, and expanding health saving accounts to include home care. Essential to HCAOA’s success at the federal level in the new 117th Congress will be the voices of home care providers educating their lawmakers on the impact of these policies. The clearest present challenge for the home care industry is maintaining an adequate workforce to care for our aging population. Nationwide, aging experts estimate that about 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day.