Spring Summer 2018

www.ohca.com Spring/Summer 2018 The Oregon Caregiver 15 with other sectors of the economy, is through increased reimbursements from Medicaid or private pay rates. Fortunately, so far, the legislature has responded to the rising labor costs with enhanced Medicaid reimbursement rates for home and community-based care providers (five percent per year this biennium). We will also be working with the state on a pilot program that seeks to demonstrate, with data, how Medicaid reimbursement rates compare with the actual cost of providing community- based care. This could be a valuable tool to quantify the impacts of new public policies on the cost of providing care and better inform legislators about the adequacy (or inadequacy) of Medicaid reimbursement rates. In addition to labor cost challenges, regulatory challenges are also visible. If successful, the new regulations in HB 3359 (passed in 2017), which includes increased dementia specific training, and the new administrator licensure requirement for community-based care providers in HB 4129 (passed in 2018), will result in a better trained and more qualified workforce. However, future administrators will be required to pass an exam and maintain their licenses. Hopefully this will not deter some caregivers from seeking licensure. In my public testimony on HB 4129 , I expressed that as the state considers new workforce requirements, such as administrator licensure, we need to be careful not to establish barriers that prevent good caregivers from advancing in their careers or further exacerbate the workforce shortage. This concern is particularly true in rural and other underserved communities. I also said that it will be necessary for the legislature to address the workforce issue more comprehensively in the future. One exciting opportunity on the horizon to combat workforce challenges comes from the Governor. Governor Brown recently announced a new career and technical education initiative in her State of the State speech called “Future Ready Oregon,” which seeks to boost training and apprenticeship opportunities for workers in high demand sectors of the economy, including health care. Governor Brown specifically acknowledged the workforce challenges in the long term care sector, stating that she “will work to better align training and requirements for entry-level jobs in health care, in-home care, and community-based health to ensure that there is a ladder to a career for people gaining skills in caregiving.” The specifics of this initiative are still being developed, but it could prove beneficial to increasing the size and quality of the long term care workforce. Workforce challenges are not unique to the long term care sector, and there is no single solution to this complex problem. The desire for a well-trained and more professionalized long term care workforce is one we all share. The challenge comes in choosing the public policies that actually improve the quality of care without exac- erbating the workforce shortage or adding unsustainable costs for middle-income seniors and the Medicaid system.  Phil Bentley, J.D., is the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at OHCA. “Brown specifically acknowledged the workforce challenges in the long term care sector, stating that she ‘will work to better align training and requirements for entry-level jobs in health care, in-home care, and community- based health to ensure that there is a ladder to a career for people gaining skills in caregiving.’” PUBLIC POLICY