Tag Archives for Executive Office of Health and Human Services

Shortage of direct care professionals a local and national concern

Published in RINewsTdoay on April 22, 2024

Last week, at  the Senate Dirksen Building, Room SD-562,  Chairman Bob Casey, of the U.S. Special Committee on Aging, (D-PA), showcased S. 4120, legislation that he introduced with U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). The Long-Term Care Workforce Support Act, introduced during the 118thCongress, would ensure that direct care professionals have a sustainable, lifelong career by providing substantial new funding to support these workers in every part of the long-term care industry, from nursing homes to home care, to assisted living facilities.

The Senate Aging Committee details a number of statistical findings showing the need for Congress to address the nation’s severe ongoing direct care professional workforce shortage. “A recent survey revealed 92% of nursing facility respondents and nearly 70% of assisted living facilities reported significant or severe workforce shortages.

In 2022, a survey of nursing facilities showed more than 50% of the facilities were limiting the number of new admissions due to staffing vacancies or shortages.  Another recent survey of Home and Community Based Service providers showed that all 50 states were experiencing home care worker shortages, and 43 states reported that some HCBS provider groups have closed due to worker shortages,” says the fact sheet.

Addressing the cause

By improving compensation, benefits, and support systems, S.4120  would ensure the United States has a “strong, qualified pipeline of workers to provide desperately needed care for older adults and people with disabilities.” notes a statement announcing the introduction of Casey’s legislative proposal.  

Specifically, S. 4120 would increase the number of direct care professionals, especially in rural communities.  It also would provide pathways to enter and be supported in the workforce for women, people of color, and people with disabilities.

S. 4120 would also improve wage compensation for direct care professionals to reduce vacancies and turnover.  It ensures that direct care professionals are treated with respect, provided with a safe working environment, protected from exploitation, and provided fair compensation.

The legislative proposal also documents the need for long-term care, identify effective recruitment and training strategies, and promote practices that help retain direct care professionals. It also would strengthen the direct care professional workforce in order to support the 53,000,000 unpaid family caregivers who are providing complex services to their loved ones in the home and across long-term care settings.

At press time, S. 4120 is endorsed by 50 organizations, including Domestic Workers Alliance, SEIU, AFSCME, Caring Across Generations, National Coalition on Aging (NCOA), Justice in Aging, National Partnership for Women & Families, National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), and the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN).

And a companion legislative proposal was introduced in the House by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI).

Senate Aging Committee puts spotlight on Direct Care Staffing Shortage 

The April 16th hearing entitled, “The Long-Term Care Workforce: Addressing Shortages and Improving the Profession,” examined the challenges currently facing long-term care workers who are often underpaid and overworked, leading to widespread worker shortages that threaten the availability of care for those who need it.  

“It’s a crisis that stems largely from a lack of support for and investment in our caregiving workforce,” warns Casey in his opening statement. “Between 50 to over 90 percent of long-term care settings and providers report significant staffing shortages, affecting their ability to provide services, accept new clients, or even to remain open,” he says.

Casey noted that many direct care professionals have to work multiple jobs or overtime just to be able to support themselves and their families.  In 2022, their medium wage was just above $15 dollars an hour, well below what is paid for warehouse and convenience store jobs, per Casey.

“The direct care workforce, the majority of whom are women of color, are more likely to live in poverty compared to the general public,” notes Casey.

“Cumbersome federal regulations, requirements, and protections” and a “one-size fits all approach” won’t fix the direct care staffing shortage, responds Ranking Member Mike Braun (R-IN).

“To grow the long-term care workforce, the federal government should make it easier for people to enter by removing barriers,” says Braun, in his opening statement, calling for “productive approaches to build and grow the care professions.”

Overworked and not enough money

Nicholas Smith, a direct support professional at SPIN, a Pennsylvania-based organization that provides lifespan services for over 3,000 people with intellectual disabilities and autism, came to testify. “I work nearly 65-70 hours a week… due to my work, I have missed family events, nieces’ and nephews’ recitals, and school functions… a lot of people are leaving this field to make more money,” said the Philadelphia resident who has worked in the long-term care industry for over 25 years.

According to Smith, the national average for direct service professional wages is only $15.43 in long-term care. “We spend time training new hires only to lose them because they cannot make a living wage,” he says, noting that other industries are offering more money.

“While people want to stay in this field, they cannot make ends meet. Pennsylvania has a long waitlist for home and community-based services, and this is due to the workforce crisis,” he says.

In her testimony, Brooke Vogleman, a licensed Practical Nurse with Huntington, Indiana based TLC Management, stated:  “I’ve seen what happens when long-term care facilities lack workers, resources and government support, like during the pandemic. Many of my colleagues got burned out and left the profession, forcing facilities to rely on costly temporary staffing agencies.”

Vogleman called on federal policy makers, including members of the Senate Aging Committee, to address the challenge through “targeted investments, not blanket mandates.”  

For instance, she told the Senators that LPNs are integral to the facility’s interdisciplinary team. “Staffing mandates that do not include our contributions to patient care or recognize us as nurses are very concerning to me and will have unintended consequences on residents,” she says.

Staffing mandates will force facilities to depend more on expensive staffing agencies, warns Vogleman. “Personally, I’m concerned they will actually increase staff burnout, as current caregivers will be stretched thin and working longer hours in order to comply with these impossible standards,” she says.

Matthew Connell, Ed.D., of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, came to share the work and achievements of his community college in addressing the shortage of healthcare and long-term care workers in Indiana.

According to Connell, serving more than 190,000 students at 19 campuses and 26 satellite locations as well as on-line, graduates more associate level nurses in Indiana.  Nearly half of these students are pursuing college credit while in high school. Ivy Tech is the nation’s single largest provider of dual credit.

Ivy Tech’s programs are especially designed to help graduates enter the workforce quickly and provide critical services for the state’s long-term care population at a tuition rate that is the lowest in the state, he notes. “One in three Registered Nurses [in Indiana] is an alum. More than 90% of its nursing graduates choose to remain in Indiana, working in hospitals and care settings,” he adds.

The last witness, Jasmine L. Travers, assistant professor at New York University’s College of Nursing,  concisely summed up how to fix the nursing shortage.  She suggested: “To improve access to and quality of long-term are, we must ensure that all direct care workers receive a living wage, a safe, respectful work environment, opportunities for advancement, adequate training, and accessible benefits to maintain their health and well-being.  Only when we recognize that these workers are critically important, hardworking processionals, can we begin to improve equity and health outcomes for staff and patients alike.”

Putting the spotlight on Rhode Island’s Direct Care Staffing Shortage

According to John E. Gage, MBA, NHA, President & CEO, of the Rhode Island Health Care Association (RIHCA), the Covid-19 pandemic had a dramatic impact on the healthcare sector across the country and especially in Rhode Island, and a disproportionate impact on nursing facilities. On a national level, in February 2020 nursing facilities workforce totaled 1,587,000. Today, it is 1,462,800, down by 124,200 or 7.8%. In Rhode Island, it is more dramatic. Pre-pandemic RI nursing facility workforce was 9,797 (2/2020). Current BLS data shows the most recent number of workers in RI nursing facilities is 8,300 – down 1,497 workers or 15.3%.  This is just about double the rate of loss of workers post-pandemic in RI compared to the national statistics.

“There are some local efforts to attract workers back to RI nursing homes,” says Gage, noting that there is a need to be laser-focused on workforce development efforts. 

Gage calls for RI Medicaid to increase reimbursements to nursing facilities to cover today’s actual cost of care, not on facility costs from 2011 (13 years ago!) with minimal average inflationary increases in the 11 years since the price-based reimbursement methodology began in 2013.  According to Gage, RI nursing facilities need an adequate, sustainable reimbursement system to foster continued high-quality care and services and provide nursing home with rates that enable them to retain current workers and recruit more caregivers.

RIHCA, a non-profit trade association representing more than 80 percent of the nursing homes in the state, and its parent organization, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) support the legislative efforts of Senator Casey’s Long-Term Care Support Act. “We support all efforts to increase Medicaid rates to enable facilities to regain and grow their workforce – both direct care and ancillary staff, to enhance the quality of care and quality of life for our nation’s and RI’s most frail elder citizens today and for the years ahead,” he says. 

“It is heartening to see the Senate Committee on Aging and leading members of Congress addressing the care worker crisis in long term care including supporting our many thousands of unpaid caregivers who provide a significant portion of long term supports and services,” says Maureen Maigret, policy advisory of the Senior Agenda of RI (SACRI). Multifaceted solutions are needed, adds Maigret that include supporting training programs for nurses and paraprofessionals, career ladders and providing adequate Medicaid provider payments as Medicaid is the primary payer for long term care.

According to Maigret, in homecare alone, 75% of persons referred for subsidized home and community care through the state Medicaid or the Office of Healthy Aging Home Cost Share program are waiting two months, and often longer, to get services. “Our nursing homes are challenged to recruit the nursing staff needed to provide resident-centered quality care. Federal funding during the pandemic brought some funding in to support worker wages but that funding has ended,” she says.

“The state Healthcare Workforce Initiative led by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor has been looking at needs across the healthcare system and addressing some of the training and education issues,” says Maigret, noting that advocacy groups, such as the SACRI, support the Medicaid reimbursement rate increases as recommended by the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner. “These rate increases are necessary to reduce service wait lists and provide livable wages for direct care staff many of whom are women and women of color,” she says. 

Over 23 years ago, in his weekly commentaries in the Pawtucket Times, this writer reported on the crisis of a direct care staffing shortage and inadequate reimbursement being paid to  nursing facilities to care for Rhode Island’s fail seniors. Isn’t it finally time for the Rhode Island General Assembly to come up with the necessary funds and strategy to fix these problem once and for all?

To watch the Senate Aging Committee hearing held on April 16, 2024, go to https://www.aging.senate.gov/hearings/the-long-term-care-workforce-addressing-shortages-and-improving-the-profession

The RI Budget proposal, as seen by our fastest growing demographic, Seniors

Published in RINewsToday on January 22, 2024

This Tuesday, Jan. 16th, Governor Dan McKee officially kicked off the legislative debate on the state’s $13.68 billion FY 2025 Budget in his 48 minute (4,481 word) State of the State address that laid out his spending priorities.  

Over the next six months the General Assembly will hold hearings on the proposed budget blueprint, rewriting it considering state revenues identified during the May Revenue and Caseload Estimating Conferences, and priorities of the legislature.

With passage by the House and Senate and signed into law by McKee, the final FY 2025 Budget will take effect July 1. 

Governor McKee’s budget proposal, which came 2 days after the State of the State, makes funding investments in education, small business, and Rhode Island’s health care system without raising any broad-based taxes. FY 2025 Budget specifics can be found in an article published by RINewsToday on Friday, Jan. 19th – HERE.

With the official release of McKee’s 2025 budget proposal on Thursday afternoon, Jan. 18, his statement along with comments from the top House and Senate legislative leaders were quickly issued.

“The Team Rhode Island budget that I’m sending to the General Assembly today prioritizes programs and initiatives that will help raise the incomes of our fellow Rhode Islanders,” said McKee. 

“By using available resources in targeted and strategic manner, we will continue to make progress on our RI 2030 goals while putting Rhode Islanders to work in good-paying jobs on projects that will pay dividends for decades to come,” he adds.

Legislative leadership

“Over the next several months, Chairman Lou DiPalma and the Senate Finance Committee will conduct a rigorous review of all aspects of the proposed budget through their public hearing process. At this early stage, I am pleased that the budget proposal reflects some of the Senate’s top priorities, including moving our state towards universal public pre-kindergarten, increasing funding for multi-language learners, increasing access to no-cost meals for students, fully funding recommended reimbursement levels for Early Intervention and increasing Medicaid rates,” says President of the Senate Dominick J. Ruggerio.  

“Now that Governor McKee has submitted the budget, our robust review process will begin. Chairman Marvin Abney and the House Finance Committee will soon commence the public hearing process and we look forward to working collaboratively with the Senate and Governor McKee over the next several months. With the federal pandemic funds having been allocated, we must live within our means and carefully scrutinize all spending requests,” says House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi.  “The Senate will continue working with all partners and stakeholders to adopt a budget that meets the needs of all Rhode Islanders.” adds the Senate President.

 Aging Groups and Advocates share thoughts

“It was good to see attention to older adults’ financial security by the proposal to increase the amount of pension income that can be exempted from state income taxes which would bring an estimated $500 benefit to about 10,000 persons,” says Maureen Maigret, The Senior Agenda Coalition’s policy advisor and former Director of the RI Department of Elderly Affairs.

“The Governor is looking for ways to increase Rhode Islanders’ incomes and the Senior Agenda Coalition has been working with several partners on a legislative proposal that would save $2,000 a year for many thousands of lower-income older persons and persons on disabilities on Medicare by having the federal government pay the cost of their Part B premiums,” she says, noting that this policy would not only save seniors money they can use for basic living expenses, but would bring millions of dollars into the state economy. It would also make them eligible for a federal program that helps pay for prescription drugs.

“We hope the $10 million in proposed bridge funding for nursing homes will help them to continue to provide necessary services for their vulnerable populations and avoid more closures which are so traumatic for residents,” says Maigret. 

“Although welcome, we had been hoping for more than the modest increase of $200,000 for senior centers as it gets distributed across around 40 senior centers. We know our older population is growing and our senior centers help hundreds of older adults stay healthy and connected to their communities,” adds Maigret.

“With many older adults waiting three months or more to get home care services and the home care worker shortage continuing it is disappointing to see the reimbursement increases recommended by the Social and Human Service Rate Review Study spread out over three years especially when the Executive Office of Health and Human Services had recommended funding the recommended increases over two years. And home care is not only what persons say they prefer but it costs far less to state government than institutional care,” notes Maigret.

“AARP Rhode Island applauds the Governor’s goal of increasing financial security for all Rhode Islanders,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Catherine Taylor in a statement released days before the release of McKee’s budget blueprint. “Everyone should be able to choose how they live as they age,” she says.

AARP Rhode Island calls on the General Assembly to pass three pieces of legislation that would help to ensure financial security for all. AARP Rhode Island is pushing lawmakers to give all Rhode Islanders access to a retirement savings vehicle. We are pleased that Governor McKee called for the passage of the Secure Choice program, which would provide an optional, voluntary Roth-IRA plan to the 172,000 Rhode Island employees who do not have access to a plan through their employer,” says Taylor.

“The state must stop taxing Social Security benefits,” says Taylor. “We are one of 9 states that still tax these benefits. We encourage legislators to keep more money in the pockets of older Rhode Islanders by eliminating the state tax on Social Security,” she says.

“Lastly, we must reframe how we think about housing as we grow older, and Accessible Dwelling Units (ADUs) are part of the equation,” adds Taylor, urging the General Assembly to pass legislation providing housing options that are suitable for differing incomes, ages, and life stages. “ADUs are one way to accomplish this goal,” she notes.

This budget is an important step forward in helping our industry, says James Nyberg, president, and CEO of LeadingAge Rhode Island, a nonprofit representing providers across the long-term care spectrum from nursing facilities to home and community-based providers. “We appreciate Governor McKee and his staff recognizing our concerns and providing an infusion of funds across multiple settings to support older Rhode Islanders wherever they call home, their families, and our dedicated workforce,” he adds.  This includes the $10 million in stopgap funds to help nursing homes in critical financial distress as they await their permanent rate adjustment effective October 1. 

According to Nyberg, the October adjustment also included in the budget is expected to provide over $60 million in funding to help nursing homes address workforce challenges, the dramatically increased costs of operating their business, and remain financially viable. “We cannot lose any more nursing homes and hopefully this budget will help mitigate that well-documented threat,” he says.  

Similarly, the budget includes the phase-in of rate increases for assisted living residences and adult day providers, per the OHIC recommendations, to support these providers, consumers, workers, and families,” says Nyberg. “We also hope the proposed housing bond will help address the shortage of safe and affordable housing for seniors, the lack of which was highlighted in the Long Term Care Coordinating Council’s recent report entitled “Meeting the Housing Needs of Rhode Island’s Older Adults and Individuals with Chronic Disabilities and Illnesses,”  he adds.

“While there are financial and other challenges that persist, we look forward to working with the Administration and the General Assembly to advance these and any other initiatives to support our long-term care providers, those for whom they care, and their workforce,” says the nonprofit executive director. 

Governor’s budget doesn’t adequately address Seniors’ needs

While aging groups recognize Gov. McKee’s funding provisions that will benefit older Rhode Islanders, one aging advocate calls on the House Finance Committee to beef up funding for seniors in its budget.

“Once again, the senior population of Rhode Island is the fastest growing demographic in the state, and the most neglected,” charges Susan Sweet, former state associate director of the Department of Elderly Affairs and an advocate for seniors facing hardships and low-income difficulties. “The Governor McKee Budget provides no relief for seniors in the proposed 2025 spending plan other than a small gift to nursing homes that may help that senior care industry and a small increase of $200,000 statewide for dividing up among R.I. Senior Centers,” she says.

According to Sweet, seniors receive nothing in the budget other than a proposed tax reduction of “pension and annuity income” to begin in calendar year 2025.  In other words, nothing for this year.  She notes that the current exemption would be raised from $20,000 to $50,000 while the state remains currently only 9 of 50 states that tax Social Security and a minority of states that tax retirement pensions.

“There is also not one cent for retirees who had their pensions frozen in 2011 and have been stripped of their contracted pension benefits of a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) each year which they were required to sign and to contribute to from their pay each year of employment,” she says.

“Just down the road in our neighboring state of Massachusetts, there is no state income tax for Social Security or pensions. Their proposed budget includes a new $2,400 per senior payout for housing assistance, rental, or ownership costs,” says Sweet. During the State of the Commonwealth speech just one day after RI Governor McKee touted his Team RI game plan, a representative of the (Massachusetts) Senior Action advocacy group was invited and recognized as a leading voice in enabling seniors to stay in their homes with cash assistance from the state, she noted.

As the founder of the R.I. Minority Elder Task Force which provides financial assistance to poor RI elders in dire circumstances, Sweet regularly sees the neglect of seniors without adequate resources for the basic needs of life. “This is not a senior-friendly state, and this is not a senior friendly budget,” she states. 

Expect aging groups and advocates to gear up to push for their senior legislative priorities in the upcoming months. The budget debate now begins.

To listen to Gov. McKee’s State of the State Address on the FY 2025 Budget, go HERE. 

Details of Gov. McKee’s FY 2025 Budget. Go HERE.

To read Gov. McKee’s FY 2025 budget proposal (H 7225), go HERE.  

Senior Agenda Coalition of RI zeros in on key aging legislation 

Published in RINewsToday on May 30, 2022

As the General Assembly winds down, the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island (SACRI) is tracking 16 House and Senate Bills along with FY 24 Budget Articles that have an impact on the state’s senior population. In a legislative alert, SACRI details a listing of 16 House and Senate bills and FY23 Budget Articles relating to care givers, mobile dental services, supplemental nutrition, housing, tax relief and home care worker wages. 

The state’s largest organization of aging groups is focusing and pushing for passage of the following four bills during the upcoming weeks.

SCARI puts on its radar screen S-2200/H-7489 to push for passage. The legislation (prime sponsors Senator Louis DiPalma (D-District 12) and Representative Julie Casimiro (D-District 31), establishes a process which would require Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), assisted by a 24-member advisory committee, to provide review and recommendations for rate setting, and ongoing review of medical and clinical service programs licensed by state departments, agencies and Medicaid.  

Meanwhile, DiPalma and Casimiro have also introduced S-2311/H-7180 to require a 24-member advisory committee to provide review/recommendations for rate setting/ongoing review of social service programs licensed by state departments/agencies and Medicaid. The House and Senate Finance Committees have recommended these measures be held for further study.

Ratcheting Up the Pay for Rhode Island’s Home Care Workers

In testimony on April 28th, SACRI’s Executive Director Bernard J. Beaudreau says, “Because payment levels for services have not been updated in years, especially in our current inflation ,levels, the low-pay level of direct care workers has created workforce shortages, impoverished workers and has put at risk our ability to provide proper care for our aging elder population.”

“Shamefully, an estimated 1 in 5 Rhode Island home care workers live in poverty and most have insufficient incomes to meet their basic needs,” says Beaudreau, calling for enactment of this bill to raise the wages of the lowest paid care workers as a top priority. 

S-2200 was referred to the Senate Finance Committee and companion measure, H 7489, was referred to the House Finance committees for review.  After hearings in their respective chambers, both bills are being held for further study. 

At press time, the Rhode Island General Assembly is hammering out its state budget for Fiscal Year 2023, taking effect July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.  SACARI calls on the state to make it a budgetary priority to address Rhode Island’s home care crisis.

According to Maureen Maigret, Chair of the Aging in Community Subcommittee of the Long-Term Care Coordinating Council, who also serves SACRI as a volunteer policy adviser and Board Member, says that the Governor’s budget calls for suspending use of an estimated $38.6 million in state funds which, by law, should be used to enhance home and community-based services. This law, says Maigret, is referred to as the “Perry-Sullivan” law after its sponsors.

Maigret calls for these funds to be used to increase home care provider rates so they may be fair and competitive to home care workers and increase rates for independent providers.  Many of these workers are low-income, women, and women of color, she says.

Lowering the property taxes for Rhode Island’s low-income seniors

SACRI also calls for the Rhode Island General Assembly to provide property tax relief for low-income seniors and Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) recipients. As housing costs rise and property taxes increase, more older Rhode Islanders with limited or fixed incomes and those on SSDI are becoming housing tax burdened, says the Providence-based the aging advocacy coalition. 

In SACRI’s legislative alert, Maigret calls for the passage of H-7127 and S-2192, with primary sponsors Representative Deborah Ruggiero (D-District 74) and Senator Cynthia Armour Coyne (D-32), charging that Rhode Island’s property tax relief law needs urgent updating.

Rhode Island’s Property Tax Review Law, sometimes referred to as the Circuit Breaker Law, needs serious updating. Initially the law was enacted to help provide property tax relief for persons aged 65 and over and to those on SSDI, says Maigret.  It is currently available to those with incomes up to $30,000 (set in 1999) and provides a credit or refund up to $415 against a person’s state taxes owed.  Both homeowners and renters are eligible to a apply. 

H-7127 and S-2192 would make hundreds of older Rhode Islanders eligible to participate by increasing the income cap from $30,000 to $ 50,000. Maigret notes that if these bills pass, a person with household incomes of $35,000 who is not eligible now could be eligible to get a refund of up to $850 next year. “These changes would provide direct relief against high property taxes and make Rhode Island more in line with our neighboring states of Connecticut and Massachusetts,” she says.

Finally, Executive Director Beaudreau testified on May 17th before the House Finance Committee, calling for the passage of H-7616, Reinstating the Department of Healthy Aging. “The time is long overdue for the state to re-invest in serving the needs of aging population,” he says, noting that “the state’s total population of 65 years and older has grown by 20% from 152,283 in 2010 to 182,486 today.”

Beaudreau testified that the “data clearly indicates that Rhode Island should be increasing plans, resources and services to meet the need of the state’s aging population, not cutting back.” The state’s budget has not kept up with the growth needed in the Office of Healthy Aging, charged with overseeing the state’s programs and services for older Rhode Islanders. “Additional funding is needed for increasing the Department’s staffing capacity and increasing financial support of Senior Centers serving thousands of older Rhode Islanders every say,” he adds.

But do not forget oral health of seniors, says SACRI.  According to the aging coalition, the importance of accessing quality oral health care in nursing homes is key to a nursing facility resident’s health, well-being and quality of life. Poor oral health care results in a higher incidence of, pneumonia cardiovascular disease diabetes, bone loss and cancer; all situations increasing the frequency of accessing medical care resulting in higher costs. 

Improving oral health care to Rhode Island’s seniors and special populations

SACRI calls for the passage of S-2588 and H-7756, bills that would provide for reimbursement for patient site encounter mobility dentistry visits to be increased to $180 per visit. The state’s reimbursement for mobile dentistry site visits began in 2008, only in nursing homes, but failed to provide funding for dental care in other settings. 

These bills would also expand the availability of this service to additional community-based group homes, assisted living facilities, adult day health and intellectual and developmental disability day programs. Passage of these bills will increase access to special populations who have difficulty in accessing basic dental services.

S-2588, referred to the Senate Finance Committee, was held for further study.  The House companion measure is scheduled to be heard on May 28th at a House Finance Committee hearing. 

Reimbursement for this service has not increased since it was initially funded over 14 years ago and does not cover the cost of delivering this critical service, says SACRI.

SACRI says “Make your voice heard!  Call House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (401 222-2466) and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (401 222-6555) and your legislative delegation to urge supporting SACRI’s priority legislation. 

To see a listing of SACRI’s 2022 Priority Legislation, go to https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/049a7960-1c2a-4880-afdd-8d1e0e283acc/downloads/SACRI%20Bill%20Tracker%202022.pdf?ver=1653052514912.

For more details about SACRI, go to https://senioragendari.org/