Tag Archives for Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin

Tracking legislation of interest to seniors as RI General Assembly wraps up – Herb Weiss

Published in RINewsToday on June 28, 2021

 In the waning days of the 2021 legislative session, RI House lawmakers approved a $13.1 billion state budget for the 2022 fiscal year (by a party-line vote of 64 Democrats to 10 Republicans) that boosts key supports for vulnerable Rhode Islanders — particularly affordable housing and social services— without imposing any broad-based tax increases.

The budget plan also fully funds K-12 education, boosts support for higher education, restores funding to Eleanor Slater Hospital and funds a first-of-its-kind statewide program for police body cameras.  

Additionally, the budget codifies the state’s existing Livable Home Grant Program to provide subsidies (up to 50%) for certain disability and accessibility home modifications, which will enable older people to remain in their homes. The budget includes $500,000 for the Livable Home Grant Program.

At press time, the state budget moves to the Senate for consideration. Once passed by the upper Chamber and signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee, the budget covers the new fiscal year, beginning July 1.

In the Waning Days…

According to Larry Berman, the House’s Communication Director, 1,470 bills were introduced in the House and 978 in the Senate. According to the RI General Assembly’s bill tracker, less than 30 are identified as directly related to seniors.

Here is a sampling of these bills:

The Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act, sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (D- District 1, Providence) and Rep. Scott A. Slater (D-District 10, Providence), sets minimum staffing levels for Rhode Island nursing homes and was signed into law by Gov. McKee, two days after General Assembly passage. The legislation (S 0002A, H 5012Aaa) will establish a minimum standard of 3.58 hours of resident care per day, initially, and 3.81 hours of resident care per day beginning January 1, 2023. The bill also provides funding to raise wages for direct care staff to help recruit and retain a stable and qualified workforce.

With final votes in both chambers, the General Assembly approved The Elder Adult Financial Act sponsored by Sen. Cynthia A. Coyne (D-District 32, Barrington, Bristol and East Providence) and Rep. Joseph J. Solomon, Jr. (D-District 22, Warwick). The legislation requires financial institutions to report suspected financial exploitation of seniors to the Office of Healthy Aging and authorizing them to temporarily hold transactions they suspect as such. The legislation will be sent to the governor for signature. The legislation (S 0264A, H 5642A) would require financial institutions to train employees to recognize indicators of elderly financial exploitation, and on their obligation to properly report it and place a hold on suspicious transactions. The legislation was the result of recommendations made by the Special Task Force to Study Elderly Abuse and Financial Exploitation, a group led by Sen. Coyne that met in 2018 and 2019 to explore the facets of elder abuse and make policy recommendations to address them.

Rep. Gregg Amore (D-District 65, East Providence) and Sen. Valarie J. Lawson’s (D-District 14, East Providence) legislation, The Uniform Control Substance Act, would exclude chronic intractable pain from the definition of “acute pain management” for the purposes of prescribing opioid medication has been signed into law by Gov. McKee. The legislation (H 5247A, S 0384A) calls for new guidelines for treatment of chronic intractable pain based upon the consideration of the individualized needs of patients suffering from it. The legislation acknowledges that every patient and their needs are different, especially those suffering from chronic pain. Chronic intractable pain is defined as pain that is excruciating constant, incurable, and of such severity that it dominates virtually every constant, moment. It also produces mental and physical debilitation and may produce a desire to suicide for the sole purpose of stopping the pain.

The House passed legislation sponsored by Rep. June S. Speakman (D-District 68, Warren, Bristol) to allow visitation for nursing home residents by a designated family member or caregiver during a state of emergency. Under the Rights of Nursing Home Patients legislation, an essential caregiver would be an individual—whether a family member or friend of a resident of a nursing home or long-term care facility – who is designated to provide physical or emotional support to the resident during a declaration of disaster emergency. The legislation (H 5543aa) would require the Department of Health to create rules and regulations providing for the designation of essential caregivers to provide in-person physical or emotional support to a resident of a nursing home or long-term care facility during the period of 15 days after a declaration of disaster emergency and until 60 days after the termination of the declaration. The bill would require DOH to develop rules and regulations on designating an essential caregiver and the criteria to qualify. Those rules would include health and safety regulations as well as requirements allowing an essential caregiver to have regular and sustained in-person visitation and physical access to a resident of the nursing home or long-term care facility. The bill now goes to the Senate, which on June 1st passed companion legislation (S 0006A) sponsored by introduced by Sen. Frank S. Lombardi (D-District 26, Cranston).

As part of its ongoing efforts of addressing the cost of prescription drugs, the RI Senate passed legislation that requires pharmaceutical companies to disclose drug pricing information and legislation would prohibit an annual or lifetime dollar limit on drug benefits. The first legislative proposal (S 0494A), which was introduced by Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D-District 4, North Providence, Providence) would require the pharmaceutical manufacturers disclose to the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner the wholesale acquisition costs of drugs if this cost is at least $100 for a 30-day supply. It would also require the disclosure of pharmacy benefit management information to include rebates, price protection payments and other payments that are saved by the pharmacy, health plan issuer or enrollees at the point of the drug. The second one, (S 0381A), which was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Michael J. McCaffrey (D-District 29, Warwick), would require that health plans that provide prescription drug coverage not include an annual or lifetime dollar limit on drug benefits. It would also cap out-of-pocket expenses that some consumers would be required to pay for prescription drugs.  The measures now move to the House for consideration.

The Senate also approved legislation sponsored by Sen. Melissa A. Murray (D-District 27, Woonsocket, North Smithfield) limiting insured patients’ copays for insulin used to treat diabetes to $40 for a 30-day supply. The legislation (S 0170A), which is part of the Senate’s prescription drug affordability legislative package, would apply to all insurance plans that cover insulin. Under the legislation, insurers would be required to cap the total amount that any covered person is required to pay for covered insulin at $40 for a 30-day supply, regardless of the amount or type of insulin prescribed. It also forbids that coverage from being submit to any deductible. The bill does allow insurers to charge less if they choose. The cost of insulin has risen sharply over the years, and the cost is much higher in the United States than in other countries.  Millions of Americans depend on insulin for the management of diabetes. The legislation goes to the lower chamber, where House Speaker Pro Tempore Brian Patrick Kennedy (D-District. 38, Hopkinton, Westerly) is sponsoring a companion bill (H 5196A).

Finally, the passed legislation sponsored by Sen. Valarie J. Larson (D-District 14, East Providence) would increase temporary caregiver benefits for Rhode Islanders. The bill (S 0688) increases temporary caregiver benefits to six weeks in a benefit year starting Jan. 1, 2022, and would increase temporary caregiver benefits to eight weeks in a benefit year beginning Jan. 1, 2023.Rhode Island was the third state in the nation to pass a paid family leave programs when it enacted the Temporary Caregiver Insurance program in 2013.  It provides up to four weeks of partial (about 60%) wage replacement for workers who need to take time from their jobs to care for a serious ill family member or to bond with a newborn, adopted or foster child.  The worker’s job and seniority are protected while the worker is on leave.An amended companion measure (H 6090A), sponsored by House Majority Whip Katherine S. Kazarian (D-District 63, East Providence) passes the House and now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Deputy House Republican Minority Leader, George Nardone (R-Dist. 28, Coventry, Rep. Michael Chippendale (R-Dist. 40, Coventry, Foster, and Glocester and Rep. Raymond A. Hull (R-District 6, Providence) submitted H 5547 to ensure proper, safe, and personal contact with loved ones in congregate care facilities.  The legislation addresses the COVID-19 mandates that denied access to individuals in hospitals, group homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and Veterans homes. The purpose of this legislation is to entitle all residents of healthcare facilities and group homes the opportunity to designate a support person for regular, in-person visits. The policy is designed to balance disease transmission protocols with the benefits of having a loved one present during a lockdown. The House Health & Human Services Committee recommended the legislation be held for further study.

Senate Minority Whip Jessica de la Cruz (R-Dist. 23, Burrillville, Glocester, North Smithfield, introduced S 644 to provide medical assistance coverage for medical services provided qualifying eligible recipients for community-based care. The Senate Health & Human Services Committee has also recommended the legislation be held for further study.

Thoughts from the Sidelines at AARP

AARP Rhode Island says they “…are thrilled that the Livable Home Modification Grant Program, which provides matching funds for needed construction to ensure that Rhode Islanders with disabilities can remain safely and comfortably at home, was included in the FY22 budget,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Catherine Taylor. “That was the highlight of the budget for us. Codifying this program has been a major priority.

“Another important win was enactment of the Elder Adult Financial Exploitation Prevention Act. This law is an important new tool to fight for the one-in-five older Rhode Islanders who is a victim of financial exploitation, with an average loss of $120,000. AARP-RI wrote to Governor McKee urging him to sign this critical legislation and they are delighted that he has done so.  This will be a game-changer in the effort to protect the life savings of older Rhode Islanders.

“Now we have our eye on the number of prescription drug bills that we’ve been working hard on, and we’re hopeful they will see passage before the end of the session. At this time, there are four Senate-approved Rx bills that need action in the House, and we are eagerly awaiting House passage of Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy’s insulin cap bill.

The Legislative session is expected to end by the end of next week. Stay tuned to see what legislative proposals ultimately make it to the Governor’s desk for signature.

UPDATE:

‘According to Maureen Maigret, Vice Chair of Rhode Island’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council, a former state representative and Director of Rhode Island’s Elderly Affairs, one of the biggest wins for older adults in the budget — the expansion of the Office of Healthy Aging @Home Cost Share program to increase income eligibility from 200% of the federal poverty level to 250% and to include persons under age 65 with Alzheimer’s/dementia. “Over $2Mil in all funds was added to the budget to do this. It was promoted by legislation sponsored by Sen. Walter Felag and Rep. Joseph Solomon. An estimated 500 persons will get subsidized home care and/or adult day services with this expansion. It was a priority of the Aging in Community Subcommittee for several years,” she says. 

Maigret also notes that the budget also includes Medicaid rate increases for a number of home and community care providers designed to increase access to these options for persons needing care. “These include assisted living, adult day services, shared living and home care. Importantly, with the cost of so many basic services such as rent and food increasing it raises the amount of money a person on home care can keep to pay for living expenses before they must pay a share of the cost of the services,”

.

Advertisement

Time to resolve RI’s ongoing Nursing Home staffing crisis

Published in RINewsToday on April 18, 2021

The latest release of AARP’s Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard shows that both cases and deaths in nursing homes declined in the four weeks ending March 21. Although these rates are improving, chronic staffing problems in nursing homes—revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic—continue. In Rhode Island, 30% of nursing homes reported a shortage of nurses or aides, which is only fractionally better than the previous reporting period. 

AARP has come out swinging to fight for enhancing the quality of care in Rhode Island’s 104 nursing homes.

AARP Rhode Island, representing 131 members, calls for the General Assembly to ensure the quality of care for the state’s nursing home through minimum staffing standards, oversight, and access to in-person formal advocates, called long-term care Ombudsmen. The state’s the largest aging advocacy group has urged lawmakers to create a state task force on nursing home quality and safety and has pushed for rejecting immunity and holding facilities accountable when they fail to provide adequate care to residents.  It’s also crucial that Rhode Island ensures that increases in nursing homes’ reimbursement rates are spent on staff pay and to improve protections for residents, says AARP Rhode Island. 

Last December, AARP Rhode Island called on Governor Gina Raimondo to scrap Executive Order 20-21 and its subsequent reauthorizations to grant civil immunity related to COVID-19 for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The aging advocacy group warned that these facilities should be held responsible for providing the level of quality care that is required of them for which they are being compensated.

Rhode Island Lawmakers Attack Nursing Home Staffing Crisis

During the legislative session, the state’s nursing home staffing crisis caught the eye of Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin is a policy issue that needs to be addressed. They knew that Rhode Island ranked 41st in the nation in the number of the average hours of care nursing home residents receive, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  The state also has the lowest average resident-care hours per day of any New England state.

On Feb. 2, the Rode Island Senate approved S 0002, “Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act” sponsored by Goodwin and nine Democratic cosponsors to address an ongoing crisis in staffing nursing homes that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The bill had passed unanimously in the Health and Human Services Committee, and ultimately, the full Senate gave its thumbs up to the legislative proposal by a vote of 34 to 4.  Only one Republican senator crossed the aisle and voted with the Democratic senators.

“There is a resident care crisis in our state. Staffing shortages and low wages lead to seniors and people with disabilities not receiving the care they desperately need. The pandemic, of course, has exponentially increased the demands of the job and exacerbated patients’ needs. We must confront this problem head-on before our nursing home system collapses,” said Sponsor Senator Goodwin (D-Dist. 1, Providence).

The legislation would establish a minimum standard of 4.1 hours of resident care per day, the federal recommendation for quality care long endorsed by health care experts including the American Nurses Association, the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations, and the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care. The bill, which the Senate also approved last year, has been backed by Raise the Bar on Resident Care, a coalition of advocates for patient care, and the Rhode Island’s Department of Health (RIDOH).

The bill would also secure funding to raise wages for caregivers to recruit and retain a stable and qualified workforce. Short staffing drives high turnover in nursing homes. Not only does high turnover create undue stress and burnout for remaining staff, but it also diverts valuable resources to recruit, orient, and train new employees and increases reliance on overtime and agency staff.  Low wages are a significant driver of the staffing crisis. The median wage for a CNA in Rhode Island is less than $15, and $1/hour lower than the median wage in both Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The legislation would also invest in needed training and skills enhancement for caregivers to provide care for patients with increasing acuity and complex health care needs.

At press time, the companion bill (2021-H-5012), sponsored by Reps. Scott A. Slater (D-Dist.10, Providence) and William W. O’Brien (D-Dist. 54) was considered by House Finance Committee and recommended for further study.

RIDOH’s Director Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH says the state agency “supports the thoughtfulness of the provisions included in the legislation and welcomes dialogue with its sponsors, advocates, and the nursing home facility industry regarding methods to sustain the necessary conditions associated with the intent of the bill.”

Alexander-Scott states that “RIDOH takes its charge seriously to keep nursing home residents and is supportive of efforts to update standards of care to better serve Rhode Islanders in nursing facilities, as well as increase resident and staff satisfaction within nursing facilities.”

Scott Fraser, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association (RIHCA), a nonprofit group representing 80 percent of Rhode Island’s nursing homes, says that “staffing shortages are directly traceable to the chronic lack of Medicaid funding from past governors. Period.” 

According to Fraser, state law requires Medicaid to be funded at a national inflation index, usually averaging around 3%. “Up until this year, previous governors have slashed this amount resulting in millions of dollars in losses to our homes.  Thankfully, Governor McKee is proposing to fully fund the Medicaid Inflation Index this year,” he says.

RIHCA opposes the mandatory minimum staffing the legislation now being considered by the Rhode Island General Assembly, says Fraser, warning that its passage would result in facilities closing throughout the state. “No other state has adopted such a high standard,” he says, noting that the Washington, DC-based American Health Care Association estimates that this legislation would cost Rhode Island facilities at least $75 million to meet this standard and the need to hire more than 800 employees. 

Fraser calls for the “Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act” to be defeated, noting that the legislation does not contain any provisions for funding.  “Medically, there is no proof that mandating a certain number of hours of direct care results in any better health outcomes.  This is an unfunded legislative mandate. If homes are forced to close, not only would residents be forced to find a new place for their care, but hundreds of workers would also be forced out of work,” he says.

Goodwin does not believe that mandating minimum staffing requirements in nursing homes will force nursing homes to close. She noted that the legislation is aimed at ensuring nursing home residents receive adequate care and that Rhode Island is the only state in the northeast without such a standard.

“There is an un-level playing field in nursing home staffing in Rhode Island,” charges Goodwin, noting that many facilities staff 4.1 hours per day, or close to it, while others only provide two hours of care per day. “In either case, the overwhelming majority of well-staffed and poorly-staffed nursing homes remain highly profitable,” she says. 

According to Goodwin, the lack of staffing and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) is due to unreasonable workloads and low pay. “RIDOH’s CAN registry makes it clear that retention of these workers is a big issue. This is in part because they can make as much money – or more – in a minimum wage profession with much less stress,” she adds, stressing that “The Nursing Home Staffing and Quality Care Act” directly addresses these staffing challenges.

One quick policy fix is to provide nursing home operators with adequate Medicaid reimbursement to pay for increased staffing.  Lawmakers must keep McKee’s proposed increase of nursing home rates pursuant to statute, requiring a market-based increase on Oct. 2021, in the state’s FY 2020 budget. The cost is estimated to be $9.6 million.

With the House panel recommending that Slater’s companion measure ((2021-H-5012) to be held for further study, Goodwin’s chances of seeing her legislation becoming law dwindles as the Rhode Island Assembly’s summer adjournment begins to loom ever closer. There’s probably no reason to insist that a bill be passed in order to have a study commission, so this could be appointed right away if there is serious intent to solve this problem.

Slater’s legislation may well be resurrected in the final days of the Rhode Island General Assembly, behind the closed doors when “horse-trading” takes place between House and Senate leadership.  If this doesn’t occur, either the House or Senate might consider creating a Task Force, bringing together nursing home operators, health care professionals and staff officials, to resolve the state’s nursing home staffing crisis. 

Questions Raised About the State’s New Independent Provider Program

Published in the Woonsocket Call on July 15, 2018

In the waning days of the 2018 legislative session, the Rhode Island General Assembly passed legislation (S 2734 Sub A, H 7803 Sub A) that establishes in the Ocean State the “Independent Provider” (IP) model of at-home care, which allows consumers to hire and manage caregivers of their own choice while the state takes on certain responsibilities, such as setting caregivers’ wages, qualification standards and hours. With Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s signature, the legislation became law on June 29th.

The enacted legislation is backed by the Rhode Island Campaign for Home Care Independence and Choice, a coalition that includes the Senior Agenda Coalition, RI Working Families Party, RI Organizing Project, District 1199 SEIU New England, RI AFL-CIO, Economic Progress Institute and the RI Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW). But, although on the losing side of the legislative debate the Rhode Island Partnership for Home Care continues to express its concern about the impact on the delivery by IPs to seniors and persons with disability.

Overwhelming Support on Smith Hill

The health care legislation, sponsored by Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (D-Providence) and Rep. Christopher R. Blazejewski (D-Providence), easily passed both the House and Senate Chambers. The Senate Committee on Labor unanimously passed the measure by a 9-0 vote. By a count of 33-0, the legislation easily passed on the Senate floor. Meanwhile, in the other chamber, the House Committee of Finance put its stamp of approval on the measure by a vote of 13-0, with the legislation ultimately passing of the House floor by a vote of 60-11. But, because the House amended the bill (in committee and on the floor), it had to come back to the Senate for consideration again. The Senate vote on the revised legislation was 28-3.

In a statement announcing the new law, Goodwin and Blazejewski, say “By increasing both availability and quality of at-home care options, the new law’s ultimate goal is to move Rhode Island toward greater use of care in the community rather than in nursing facilities, since at-home care is both more comfortable and satisfying for consumers and less expensive than nursing facilities.”

“Presently, Rhode Island ranks 42nd in the nation in terms of investment in home care. Ninety percent of older Americans prefer home care. Not only is it more comfortable for seniors, it’s more cost-effective, as we’ve seen in states like Massachusetts. High-quality home care is what people want, and it saves money. I’m proud to support this effort to help make excellent home care available to more Rhode Islanders,” said Goodwin.

Adds, Blazejewski, “There is little question that people prefer to stay in their homes as long as possible. Particularly now, as the over-65 population in our state is rapidly expanding, Rhode Island must shift more of our long-term care resources toward supporting home care. Our legislation will help provide more options for home-based services, enhance access to them and establish standards that assure high-quality care.”

Hiring, Finding and Managing a Caregiver

Currently around 77 percent of Medicaid funding for long-term services and supports goes to nursing facility care rather than community-based care. Those who use community-based care generally go through agencies or find, hire and manage a caregiver on their own. This bill would create a third option.

Under the Independent Provider model, which has been in place in Massachusetts since 2008, consumers would still be the direct employer who determines when to hire or fire an employee, but the state would take on responsibilities for maintaining a registry of qualified caregivers, and would set parameters such as rates, qualifications and hours.

While the new law stipulates that they are not employees of the state, it would give home care workers the right to collectively bargain with the state over those parameters. Allowing them to organize would ensure that this otherwise dispersed workforce has a unified voice and a seat at the table to tackle the issues facing Rhode Island’s long term services and supports system, said the sponsors.

Consumers in states with independent provider models report higher levels of client satisfaction and autonomy, received more stable worker matches, improved medical outcomes, and reduced unmet need with agencies delivering fewer hours of care relative to the needs of the consumer.

In testimony supporting the health care legislation, Director Charles J. Fogarty, of Rhode Island’s Division of Elderly Affairs (DEA), told lawmakers that the health care legislation supports two goals of DEA, first it would enable elderly and disabled Rhode Islanders who are medically able to stay at home and second, it would address Rhode Island’s direct service provider workforce shortage.

Fogarty said it’s critical for older adults and people with disabilities to have access to the quality of care that is right for them. “In some cases, care from an independent provider they know and trust will best meet their needs to remain independent. In other cases, a home care agency will be the right fit. And for some, particularly those with complex medical needs, our quality nursing homes are the right option,” he said.

When quizzed asked about The Rhode Island Health Care Association’s position, Virginia Burke, President and CEO, recognized the value of home care in the state’s long-term care continuum but stressed that residents in the state’s nursing facilities “are too sick or impaired to mange at home.” She said, “Our only concern with this proposal is the suggestion that it could drain Medicaid funding from the frailest and most vulnerable among our elders in order to pay for a new Medicaid service. Surely our elders deserve good quality and compassionate care in all settings.”

Calling for More Education, State Oversight of IPs

While most who testified before the Senate and House panel hearings came to tout the benefits of bringing IP caregivers into the homes of older Rhode Islanders and persons with disabilities, Nicholas A. Oliver, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Partnership for Home Care, sees problems down the road and calls the new policy “duplicative and costly.”

In written testimony, if the legislation is passed Oliver warns that Rhode Island will be authorizing untrained and unsupervised paraprofessionals to deliver healthcare to the state’s most frail seniors without Department of Health oversight, without adherence to national accreditation standards for personal care attendant service delivery and without protections against fraud, waste and abuse.

Furthermore, his testimony expressed concern over the lack of oversight as to the quality of care provided by IPs to their older or disabled clients. Although the legislation called for supervision from the Director of Human Services (DHS), this state agency does not have the mandated legislative authority to investigate IPs to ensure that patient safety is met and the recipients of care are protected against harm in their homes. Nor does it require daily supervision for adherence to the patient’s authorized plan of care, he says, noting that is a requirement for licensed home health and hospice agencies.

Oliver observes that the legislation does not require IPs to receive the same level of intensive training that Certified Nursing Assistances (CNAs) receive from their home health care and hospice agencies. While the state requires all CNAs to complete 120 hours of initial training, pass a written and practical examination, become licensed by the Department of Health and maintain a license by completing a minimum of 12 hours of in-service training annually, the legislation only requires IPs to take three hours of generalized training and no continuing in-service training is required.

CNAs deliver the same personal care attendant services as the IPs but have a specific scope of practices that they must follow as regulated by the Department of Health and their licensure board while IPs do not have these requirements, says Oliver.

Finally, Oliver says that “to ensure quality of care [provided by home care and hospice agencies], CNAs are supervised by a registered nurse (RN) that is actively involved in the field and who is available to respond to both the patient’s and the CNA’s needs on-demand to reduce risk of patient injury, harm or declining health status and to reduce risk of CNA injury, harm or improper delivery of personal care.” IPs do not have this supervision., he says.

Safe guards are put in place by home health and hospice agencies to ensure the safety of patient and direct care staff, says Oliver, noting that these agencies are nationally accredited by The Joint Commission, the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) or the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) in partnership with the Department of Health for compliance of state and federal rules and regulations, as well as national clinical standards for personal care attendant service delivery.

With the Rhode Island General Assembly bringing IPs into the state’s health care delivery system, the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, granted authority by the legislation to develop the program, might just consider establishing a Task Force of experts to closely monitor the progress of the new IP program’s implementation to ensure that quality of care is being provided and to make suggestions for legislative fixes next year if operational problems are identified. Unanticipated consequences of implementing new rules and regulations do happen and every effort should be state policy makers that this does will not happen in Rhode Island with the creation of the new IP program.

To watch Oliver talk about the Rhode Island Partnership for Home Care’s opposition to the enactment of IP legislation that would increase state involvement in the home care sector, go to http://m.golocalprov.com/live/nicholas-oliver.