Tag Archives for Senior Agenda

Senior Agenda Coalition of RI unveils legislative agenda to packed house of seniors

Published in RINewsToday on April 1, 2024

Last Wednesday, the main ballroom at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick was filled, to capacity. Hundreds came to the Senior Agenda Coalition of RI’s (SACRI)  2024 Legislative Leaders Forum to learn about the advocacy group’s issue priorities. House and Senate leadership, along with members of both caucuses came to listen, learn and to respond to SACRI’s four priority issues for 2024.

We’re back, and we are stronger than ever,” announced Maureen Maigret, SACRI’s Policy Advisor, to 275 attendees who came to this year’s annual legislative forum held on March 27, 2024.  Before she unveiled SACRI’s ambitious legislative priorities she painted a demographic picture of older Rhode Islanders.

The graying of Rhode Island’s population

“We know that 200,000 Rhode Islanders are age 65 and over, and this number is growing,” noted Maigret. According to the former state legislator and Director of the Department of Elderly Affairs, in just six years, 1 in 5 persons will be age 65 and over. Today, 20% of the population in 18 Rhode Island communities are in their mid-sixties and over.

Many seniors still work. They pay taxes, provide care to loved ones, volunteer to contribute to their communities, and religiously vote,” stated Maigret, who noted that they contribute over $3.28 billion to Rhode Island’s economy through Social Security benefits. 

Maigret pointed out that as the older population ages, the percentage of woman increases over men.  At age 65 and over , 56% of this age distribution are woman, 44% are men.  At age 85 and over, the percentage of women rapidly increase to 69% compared to 31% for men. And in nursing homes, 68% of residents are woman while 32% are men. 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, many older Rhode Islanders have limited incomes. Twenty-seven percent of age 65+ households earn less than $25,000 a year, while 50% earn less than $50,000 a year.

With women leaving their jobs over the years to raise their family, it is no surprise to Maigret that women’s incomes are less than men, this ultimately resulting in a smaller Social Security benefit. The average Social Security benefits of women aged 65 and over ($20,333) is $5,000 less than their male counterparts ($25,204), she says.

Unveiling SACRI’s Legislative Agenda

“Keeping seniors strong” is the theme of this year’s legislative forum, Maigret told the hundreds of seniors and aging advocates in attendance before announcing the SACRI priorities. SACRI is pushing for legislative issues in the areas of:

·       Economic Security

·       Supports at Home

·       Community Connections

·       Housing Options

She called on the House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick), and Senate Majority Whip, Valarie Lawson (D-Dist. 14, East Providence), in attendance, to support House and Senate legislation, and state budget proposals to address these issues.

SACRI’s top legislative priority is to addressEconomic Security issues. Polls show that healthcare affordability is a major concern, and this impacts many seniors.  Maigret pointed out that Medicare premiums  and co-payment gaps have a major impact on low-income Rhode Islanders who struggle to pay for healthcare, food, rent and basic needs.”

According to Maigret, legislative proposals (S. 2399/H. 7333) would be a legislative fix to reduce high out-of-pocket costs for persons on Medicare. The bills would expand income eligibility for the Medicare Savings Program (MSP), helping an estimated 17,000 low-income seniors and disabled residents pay their $175/month Medicare Part B premium and covering co-pays and deductibles for those with very low-income.

Thousands of low-income seniors and persons with disabilities on Medicare, but not eligible to participate in the state’s Medicaid program, struggle each month to pay their Medicare Part B premiums and co-pay costs for services and prescription drugs causing many to forgo needed health care as they cannot afford to pay the co-payments.

And eligibility to join MSP qualifies those on Medicare to enroll in the federal Extra Help program that provides significant additional financial assistance to pay for

SACRI also calls on the state lawmakers to provide necessary funding in the 2025 Fiscal Year Budget to enhance programs to assist seniors to age in place in their communities. “It’s a very important legislative issue for seniors,” notes Maigret, stressing that most seniors want to stay at home when they need care.   

In large part due to the existing home care staffing shortage, 75% of those referred for state-subsidized home care wait two months or more for these services. A state study recommended home care rate increases to improve access to home health care services which would help to address the worker shortage and provide livable wages for home care workers.  Maigret urged Shekarchi and Lawson to put funding in this year’s budget to implement the study’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, SACRI supports increased funding for local Senior Centers to enable them to continue to provide “community connections” to seniors. “They do amazing work by offering meal programs, technology assistance and training and all kinds of social, health and recreations programs, says Maigret.

Seniors benefit from, and enjoy going to Senior Centers, adds Maigret, reflecting on a comment told to her by a senior attending Warwick’s Pilgrim Senior Center. “It’s my home away from home,” she says.

Governor Dan McKee’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget would distribute $1.4 million (about $7 per person aged 65 and over in each community) to the local communities for Senior Centers and programs. SACRI calls on the General Assembly to increase this budget allocation by about $660,000 (making the funding tied to $10 per person aged 65 and over. “It’s a small funding request,” says Maigret.

Finally, SACRI urges the General Assembly to continue to address the lack of options and affordability of housing for seniors. Maigret notes that this problem is the result of the state’s growing older population with fixed incomes, combined with low housing production, skyrocketing rent increases, and high property taxes, 

There are many legislative remedies to address the state’s housing crisis, says SACRI, calling on the General Assembly to use a portion of the proposed Housing Bonds to support affordable housing options for older Rhode Islanders. She also suggested that lawmaker’s continue funding the Home Modification Program, expanding the Property Tax Relief Program and finally promoting  accessibility features in new housing developments.

Like previous years, SACRI worked hard to drive home the point of putting a spotlight to its legislative agenda by having “storytellers” translated the priorities into personal stories.  

House Speaker talks turkey at Legislative Forum

Aging is a very important and personal issue to House Speaker Shekarchi, who is taking care of his 98-year-old father, who remains at home. “That is where he wants to be, he says. “I know that not everyone is fortunate – not everyone has the same support system,” says Shekarchi. “But it’s important that seniors have options so they can choose what’s best for them,” he says

“We need to provide support for seniors to age in place and to remain in their homes, living independently,” states Shekarchi. A great option – which is also the top legislative priority for AARP Rhode Island this year – is creating Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). They enable seniors – even young college graduates – to live independently while remaining near family and others, he adds.

“As for seniors who live in assisted living facilities and nursing homes, we need to ensure those facilities are adequately staffed, and that caregivers are paid a sustainable wage,” says Shekarchi. 

“We expect this to be a very challenging budget year, with many worthwhile, but competing, priorities,” says Shekarchi.

“I know the Senior Agenda has legislative priorities in 2024 that I promise we will consider very carefully. And I have a request for all of you. Please stay involved, make your voices heard at the State House,” Shekarchi suggests, “give us feedback. You can testify in person at the State House, or in writing by letter or email.

Valarie Lawson, Senate Majority Whip, took the opportunity to discuss the Rhode Island HEALTH Initiative… a Senate legislative package designed to address affordability and accessibility of health care in the state.

According to Lawson, the HEALTH Initiative seeks to ensure the strength of the state’s community hospitals, attract, and retain primary care doctors and makes sure Rhode Islanders can access quality, affordable care. The legislation includes a bill by Sen. Alana DiMario to create a drug affordability commission in Rhode Island … which is a critical step to make the state’s prescription drug system less complicated and less costly. And Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski’s legislation to transform and mandate a continuous Medicaid reimbursement rate review process by the Office of the Health Insurance Commission.

Lawson noted the Senate was working on the SACRI MSP priority legislation and that she is a co-sponsor of the bill. She said that the Senate shares the Senior Agenda’s  priority of making Rhode Island a place where residents can age with comfort and security. “At the State House… we rely on your voices to help guide us,” she said.

Call to Action

Diane Santos, SACRI Board Chair, ended the forum with a Call to Action for attendees to let their voices be heard by contacting their local legislators to express their concerns and to support programs to help keep seniors strong.

SACRI Legislative Leaders Forum organizational partners included: Cranston Enrichment Center, Edward King House, Leon Mathieu Senior Center, Meals on Wheels RI, Pilgrim Senior Center, Ocean State Center for Independent Living, St. Martin de Porres Center, The RI Organizing Project and The Village Common of RI.

To watch the 2024 Senior Agenda Coalition Leaders Forum Conference, go to: https://capitoltvri.cablecast.tv/show/9023

RI Gubernatorial Forum to ask, “what’s your Senior Agenda”

Published in RINewsToday on August 1, 2022

The Senior Agenda Coalition of RI (SACRI) has joined 17 organizations to bring you Rhode Island’s 2022 Gubernatorial Forum where candidates will talk about senior issues. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, August 3, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at the East Providence High School’s new 900-seat capacity auditorium. Seating is limited to 450 people, leaving space for social distancing. Doors will open at 9:30 a.m. At press time, 350 seniors and aging advocates have registered to attend in person or virtually.    

“Senior issues must be viewed as a public policy priority because Rhode Island’s older population is growing dramatically,” says Bernard J. Beaudreau, SACRI’s Exec. Director, and one of the event’s organizers. According to Beaudreau, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the state’s total population of 65 years and older has grown by 20% from 152,183 in 2010 to 182,486 in 2020, adding 30,303 people in this age group. Rhode Island’s statewide planning projections also indicate that people sixty-five and older will grow to over 247,000 by 2030, an increase of 65,000 seniors over the 2020 census.

Gubernatorial candidates to delineate positions on key Senior Issues

“During the 90-minute forum, the gubernatorial candidates will share their positions on seven questions, hammered out by event cosponsors, as to how they would address a variety of policy issues impacting older Rhode Islanders,” says Beaudreau.  “Attendees will learn how candidates would rebuild and sustain a viable workforce for nursing homes and homecare providers. They will also be asked about their plans for Medicaid rebalancing and expansion to improve home and community-based care opportunities while ensuring the financial viability of nursing homes,” he says. 

Beaudreau says the forum also gives the gubernatorial candidates an opportunity to detail their strategies on how resources can be increased to significantly support healthy aging in the community. They will be asked by the moderator what type of assistance will be given to low-income seniors, and will they support a yearly cost-of-living adjustment to the state SSI payment and increase eligibility for the Medicare Savings Programs for seniors and people with disabilities to at least 185% FPL.

The attendees will also learn how the candidates, if elected governor, will ensure that an adequate amount of the $250 million in funding for affordable housing is allocated for seniors and how they will work to ensure equal access to high quality healthcare and information about available health care resources.

Finally, the gubernatorial candidates will be asked to make a pledge to address the needs of Rhode Island’s older population and provide the leadership and resources necessary to create and implement a Rhode Island Strategic Plan on Aging.

Recognizing the political clout of Seniors

“SACRI’s upcoming Gubernatorial Candidates’ Forum is important as older adults historically have high turnout in elections and the Forum provides an opportunity to hear the candidates’ views on issues important to seniors,” says Maureen Maigret, Chair of the Long-Term Care Coordinating Council’s Aging in Community Subcommittee. “The Forum should cause candidates to take a serious look at the state’s demographics, to note how the older population is growing, and to reflect on how government can best support older adults’ desire to remain healthy and living in the community and provide quality facility care when needed,” says Maigret.

“The Forum allows us to set forth policy priorities and hold whoever is elected accountable for addressing them. An example of this is when former Governor Raimondo was elected. She had been presented with priorities for restoring budget cuts to senior services such as Meals on Wheels and some of the cuts were restored in her budgets,” Maigret noted.

SACRI’s Beaudreau says that the senior vote will influence the outcome of the upcoming primary and mid-term. “Rhode Island seniors 60 years of age and older represent 34% of all registered voters and accounted for 42% of the vote in the 2020 general election. Rhode Island seniors have higher voter participation rates than the rest of the population,” says Beaudreau, this being 77% compared to 57% for voters under 60 years of age. “We have a powerful voice to be exercised to impact public policy,” he says.

Political pundit Wendy J. Schiller sees seniors as a crucial voting bloc in American politics. “On average, 72% of voters over the age of 65 turn out to vote in presidential elections, as compared to about 48.6% of voters under the age of 30. Seniors are consistent and typically well-informed voters on issues concerning Social Security and Medicare,” says Schiller, Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science and Director of the Taubman Center on American Politics and Policy, Brown University. 

According to Schiller, in the past 3 elections, “seniors have split about 55-56% for the Republicans, and 45-46% for Democrats. Seniors have been viewed as more conservative (Sun City AZ, the Villages FL) but the data do not really bear that out as you can see. There is a tilt, but not a full lean toward the GOP; this midterm season might be different though. If the 22 midterm elections were held tomorrow, you might expect to see even a bigger swing toward GOP candidates than usual because of inflation alone. Inflation is just one area where there is a gap in issue concerns between older and younger voters. Older voters worry a great deal about inflation eating into their savings and pensions that are not adjusted for inflation while younger voters may be as concerned with climate change and abortion rights as much or even more than they are worried about inflation,” she says.  

Schiller says that seniors are like all other voters in that they are highly influenced by their political party affiliation, even in cases where the party proposes policies that run against their interests. “The GOP has proposed cutting Medicare ever since it was created, most recently under President Trump, but they are not careful to say that such cuts would not affect current recipients or even people aged 55 or over and the majority of seniors voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Democrats ran into some trouble with seniors when Bernie Sanders and others proposed Medicare for All because seniors thought it would dilute their own services through Medicare, and/or raise their premiums,” adds Schiller.      

Adds well-known Rhode Island Political Strategist, Rob Horowitz, “As a group, seniors vote more regularly than any other age group. In the 2020 presidential election, for example, more than 3-in-4 people eligible voters between the ages of 65 to 74 voted as compared to about 2-in-4 eligible voters between the ages of 18 to 24. Since Rhode Island has an older population, seniors are a key group in pretty much every state and local election.  Winning campaigns in Rhode Island and throughout the nation devote time and advertising dollars to reaching seniors.”

According to Bob Weiner, former chief of staff director of the House Select Committee on Aging under Florida Congressman Claude Pepper and former spokesman for both the Clinton and Bush White Houses, no one can forget the clout of older voters because they are the most motivated demographic group to vote. “They can’t be broken out by political parties as people expect,” observes Weiner, noting that it is a very close 50-50 split vote. “Older voters vote Democratic and Republican; the Democrats must do more to capture the senior vote.  It’s close. In 2020, while Joe Biden won the popular vote by 7 million, Donald Trump won the senior vote 52% to 47%. It’s not a matter of party. Seniors’ quality of life is not political,” he says.

“But on the issues, they will tear apart a candidate who doesn’t support Social Security, Medicare and the rights of seniors to have continued employment and privileges in society,” Weiner notes.

“So, anybody who thinks they can get away with some horrible position, such as cutting back Social Security or Medicare in five years or utilizing the myth that Social Security is in deficit crisis, they can’t  because it has a 2 trillion surplus resulting from Claude Pepper negotiations to keep the program fully solvent through 2034,” Weiner says, noting that it only needs a “little repair” to keep it going.    

“Anybody who thinks that they are going to use Social Security and seniors to fund other federal government operations is badly mistaken,” says Weiner. “When President Bush wanted to privatize Medicare and Social Security and made a campaign out of that he actually helped lose congressional seats in an off-year election,” said Weiner, warning political candidates to think twice when thinking about balancing the federal budget on the backs of the nation’s elderly. 

“Voting Gives You Power”

“In Rhode Island and across the country, the data clearly show that voters aged 50+ will be the deciders in the 2022 elections,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Catherine Taylor. “We are working with dozens of advocacy volunteers who are fighting for voters 50+ to make their voices heard on the issues that matter – especially in Rhode Island where we are in the midst of a housing crisis, nursing homes are in jeopardy, the cost of long-term care is skyrocketing and where people want leaders who are committed to making local communities more livable.

“At the federal level, older voters want to know candidates’ positions on protecting and strengthening the Social Security benefits Americans have paid into and earned through years of hard work, protecting and improving Medicare benefits, lowering prescription drug prices, and supporting family caregivers who risk their careers and financial futures to care for parents, spouses, and other loved ones,” Taylor said.

“Voting gives you the power to decide what our future looks like,” she continued “But you have to be in the know to vote. AARP Rhode Island has collected the most up-to-date election information, including key dates and deadlines, to make sure that the voices of voters 50+ are heard. We are doing everything we can to make sure older Rhode Islanders are prepared to vote and know the safe and secure voting options included in the new, AARP Rhode Island-backed Let RI Vote Act. In mid-August, we will offer a Video Voter Guide posted along with all the latest election information at aarp.org/RIvotes,” Taylor said.

Co-sponsoring this event is a broad coalition of 18 service providers and advocates: 

A Community Together, Alzheimer’s Association of RI, Carelink, Community Partners Network of RI, Economic Progress Institute, Leading Age RI, NAACP Providence Branch, Ocean State Center for Independent Living, PACE, Progreso Latino, RI Assisted Living Association, RI Elder Info, RI Health Care Association, RI Organizing Project, RI Senior Centers Directors Association, SEIU Healthcare 1199, Senior Agenda Coalition of RI and Village Common of RI.

in the high school’s new 900-seat capacity auditorium. 

To read AARP web blog articles discussing the impact of senior voters at the polls, go to: 

www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2022/older-voters-midterm-issues.html

www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/politics/2022/aarp-targeted-congressional-districts-survey-voters-18-older.doi.10.26419-2Fres.00550.033.pdf

https://press.aarp.org/2022-4-6-Women-Voters-Age-50-Over-Will-Decide-Balance-Power-Next-Election

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.