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$1.2 billion to bolster Pennsylvania’s home care industry
Stacy Wescoe//January 20, 2022//
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Personal care workers from the Lehigh Valley joined Acting Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Secretary Meg Snead, to promote a plan to help recruit and retain workers in the field of home care.
Pennsylvania received $1.2 billion in enhanced federal Medicaid funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to help offer higher wages and benefits for the home care workforce and to recruit more people to work in the industry, which has been traditionally low paying.
The money is going to the DHS home and community-based services system, which allows seniors, people with intellectual and physical disabilities and children with complex medical needs to receive care and support in their community.
Unfortunately, Snead said the jobs often don’t come with benefits and pay just over $11 per hour, which leaves many of those working in home care reliant on public assistance to meet their own needs.
She noted that there hasn’t been an increase in the base wage for personal care workers in more than a decade.
“In Pennsylvania, we’re faced with this reality of working for $11.50 an hour or less and no benefits. Because our wages are so low, we often rely on public assistance for our own healthcare” said Lynn Weidner, a personal care attendant from Allentown.
The funds will help DHS offer an 8% increase to base pay for the workers, which Fermina Maddox of Liberty Resources Home Choices in Allentown said is a good start.
“We applaud DHS for the increase. There’s still a lot to do, however,” she said.
Snead noted that the $1.2 billion is a one-time boost, and more funding will be needed to sustain the improvements DHS wants to make to the home care system.
She is hopeful that funding will come through from the Biden Administration’s Building Back Better plan, and the state will receive the funds it needs to build what she called a vital program for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents.
“This isn’t the end all and be all that keeps this system from collapsing,” she said. “But we think this is a step in the right direction.”
