Individual Provider Training Bill

Position Statement of The King County Parent Coalition on Individual Provider Training Bill

Background

In the 2007 State legislative session, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) introduced House Bill 2284, “an act relating to the training of and collective bargaining over the training of care providers.” SEIU strongly pushed the bill. If the bill did not pass they had a people’s Initiative filed and ready for the November 2007 election.

In the initial bill, SEIU proposed 150 hours of required training for ALL Medicaid Personal Care and Respite providers. Later it was changed to 85 hours. Because of the significant cost of this proposal, it initially did not make it through the committee process. [The current training requirement is 28 hours and 10 hours continuing education for individual providers. Training of PARENT PROVIDERS of Medicaid Personal Care (MPC) has been a one-time only 6 hours training with the additional Safety Training and a 30 minute SEIU presentation.] On the last days of the 2007 legislative session, the bill was resurrected and it passed as a Study Bill - Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill (ESSHB) 2284. You can find this final bill and bill reports at: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2284

Nursing Homes, hospitals, hospice agencies, other acute care settings, adult day care and day health care centers are excluded from the expanded training bill. The increased training requirement applies to Parent Providers who only provide for their own adult child, “intermittent providers” that parents hire to care for their son/daughter, Adult Family Home workers, respite care providers and other long term care workers.

ESSHB 2284 calls for a Worker Training Work Group connected to the Long Term Care Task Force set up by the legislature for other issues. The Worker Training Work Group was charged with making recommendations on the amount of training, the content of the core and basic training and the certification of the long term care workers. These recommendations will be given to the Long Term Care Taskforce of the legislature, the governor and appropriate legislative committees by December 1, 2007. You can view this report and make comments on the web site by going to www.governor.wa.gov/LTCTF/workgroup.htm. The Task Force must submit a final report to the legislature by December 30, 2007.

The Work Group has met summer and fall of 2007. Much testimony has been given by parent providers and parents who hire providers for MPC. Donna Patrick, WA State Developmental Disabilities Council staff, is a member of the Workgroup and has represented parent issues well.

Important testimony was given by Kathy Leitch, Administrator of Aging and Disability Services Administration (ADSA) at these work group meetings. Kathy Leitch clearly stated that her staff had worked out the statewide cost of the proposed increased training to be $1 million for each hour of additional training. (For example, if the proposed hours of training would be 85 hours, this would cost the state $85 million.)

Concerns
1. On a number of occasions, an SEIU representative stated the following:

• 85% of family providers (including parents) supported increased basic training, certification and mentoring;
   

• 63% of parent providers strongly agreed with the statement: ”Improved training will ensure that whoever replaces me when I can no longer continue working will be a qualified and well-trained caregiver who can continue to provide quality care to my family member.”
   

• By contrast, only 30% of family providers strongly agreed with the statement: “Additional training requirements are an unnecessary new burden on family providers.”

As you can see, these answers can be interpreted in many ways.

2. With the exception of the one-time only six hours training for parent providers, current training is focused on elderly individuals and is a medical based model. Thus, training is typically not RELEVANT to individuals with developmental disabilities (DD).

3. Where will the money for the additional training come from? Will the criteria for eligibility be tightened due to the higher costs of training, thus decreasing the number of people able to receive MPC? Since 2008 is an election year, there is a reluctance to spend new money in
the state budget. This could mean taking money from other programs.

4. How would parents find caregivers for their son/daughter while attending additional hours of
training?

Statement
There is a suggestion that all parents currently giving care ONLY to their own adult son/daughter and who have attended the 6 hour training or who have received or will receive a contract and training by 1/1/09 would be grandfathered in. Additionally those providers whom parents have hired and have completed their required training by 1/1/09 may also be grandfathered in. The Parent Coalition staff feels strongly that this is a classic example of a SYSTEMS issue. That is, we can not look at this decision individually. We must consider the long-term impacts of this decision, whether or not it affects you currently. The reality is that if you are a parent providing care to your son/daughter, it is highly likely that you will eventually have to hire someone else to care for your s/d that will be subject to the increased training requirement.

QUESTIONS
• In King County: Please contact: Joanne O’Neill, jponeill@arcofkingcounty.org , 425-746-2178

• In other counties with a Parent Coalition coordinator, contact that person

• Statewide: Donna Patrick, donnap@cted.wa.gov ; 1-800-634-4473 ext. 4