Increasing pay for direct care workers really can help long-term care operators combat staffing shortages, according to a blog post this week in Health Affairs. The article discussed how several states, including Arkansas, New York and Michigan, saw improvements in the recruitment and retention of frontline caregivers at long-term care facilities after implementing pay increases, hazard pay and bonuses from these workers through a temporary 6.2% increase in federal Medicaid matching funds authorized in May by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The blog authors also noted that similar, but longer-term, Medicaid reimbursement increases, along with other strategies implemented at the state and federal levels, could represent a “down payment” on a national strategy to more appropriately value direct care workers and encourage workforce stability.
The improved worker recruitment and retention results make sense and provide a real-world example of the benefits of increasing direct worker pay, said the authors, many of whom also were involved in a LeadingAge report released in September. That report found that higher wages for direct care workers can positively affect their financial well-being, reduce turnover and staffing shortages, boost worker productivity, enhance quality of care and spur economic growth in communities.
Despite their valuable work, one in eight of the nation’s 3.5 million direct care workers — nursing assistants, personal care aides and home health aides who work in residential care settings and private homes — live in poverty, and more than half received public health benefits in 2018, according to the new blog post.
“Our nation’s experience with the coronavirus pandemic sends another clear message: We must act now to stabilize the direct care workforce and professionalize the role of direct care workers,” the authors noted. “In the process, we will take a critical step toward helping the LTSS field navigate the current pandemic and prepare for the next.”
