Huge Shortage of Long Term Care Workers Getting Worse
Huge Shortage of Long Term Care Workers is Getting Worse by the Day!
From Kaiser Health News 3-26-2018
“Nationwide, 1 million immigrants work in direct care — as CNAs, personal care attendants or home health aides — according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, a New York-based organization that studies the workforce. Immigrants make up 1 in 4 workers, said Robert Espinoza, PHI’s vice president of policy. Turnover is high, he said, because the work is difficult and wages are low. The median wage for personal care attendants and home health aides is $10.66 per hour, and $12.78 per hour for CNAs. Workers often receive little training and leave when they find higher-paying jobs at retail counters or fast-food restaurants, he said.
“The country faces a severe shortage in home health aides. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, an even more serious shortfall lies ahead, according to Paul Osterman, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. He predicts a national shortfall of 151,000 direct care workers by 2030, a gap that will grow to 355,000 by 2040. That shortage will escalate if immigrant workers lose work permits, or if other industries raise wages and lure away direct care workers, he said.
“‘What people don’t seem to understand is that people from other countries really are the backbone of long-term care,’ said Sister Jacquelyn McCarthy, CEO of Bethany Health Care Center in Framingham, Mass., which runs a nursing home with 170 patients. She has eight Haitian and Salvadoran workers with TPS, mostly certified nursing assistants. They show up reliably for 4:30 a.m. shifts and never call out sick, she said. Many of them have worked there for over five years. She said she already has six CNA vacancies and can’t afford to lose more.
“Osterman, the MIT professor, said the sum of all of these immigration policy changes may have a serious impact. If demand for workers exceeds supply, he said, insurers may have to restrict the number of hours of care that people receive, and wages may rise, driving up costs. ‘People aren’t going to be able to have quality care,’ he said. ‘They’re not going to be able to stay at home.’”
What is behind this? So many people who did not plan ahead for this end up on a welfare program called Medicaid. Medicaid reimbursement to caregivers is so low, they cannot afford to pay enough to get the workers the industry needs.
Many assisted living facilities will not allow you in unless you can prove that you can pay for at least 2 years. If you did not plan for this and run out of money, you will not find room at the inn. Somebody has to take you, and it is the nursing homes who must accept Medicaid if they also receive Medicare payment for the short (usually less than a week) rehab care they provide following a hospital stay. Do you want to be forced into a nursing home because you are unable to pay for care? Have you heard of LTC insurance? Have you investigated it for yourself?
Call www.TheLongTermCareGuy.com at (920) 884-3030 to schedule a time to investigate.
