“Is it going to take a loss of life before they take this issue seriously:” CHANGE for Homecare testifying to improve private duty nursing program

DELAWARE- CHANGE for Homecare a Delaware group formed to advocate for people with complex disabilities stepped up to the plate Wednesday asking the Joint Finance Committee to make improvement’s to the state’s private duty nursing program.

“We hope our legislators are willing to take the first steps in improving the lives of the medically complex and disabled communities the current practices are out of date,” Kateri Morton, the lead advocate for the group, said.

Morton said people with disabilities rely on these nurses to get the Homecare they need.

We’re told the program is funded by Medicaid reimbursements, which haven’t been raised for 15 years.

“The pay rates were not competitive with other potential jobs in the field and the benefits packages were sub-standard therefore obtaining and maintaining nursing staff for even the private duty nursing companies has been a real challenge,” Morton said.

But Representative Ruth Briggs King, who’s on the Joint Finance Committee, said right now she doesn’t believe it’s financially possible.

“There’s nothing proposed in the governors budget beyond regular escalators if you will to increase that funding at this time for those agencies,” Representative King said.

Representative King argues that’s not the only concern.

“There’s no way for us to know if we increase funding if actually just goes towards salary or wherever program or work that that contract provider may have,” Morton said.

With these concerns in mind, Morton said she understands how the COVID crisis may be putting financial strain on these committees, but said this reimbursement increase needs to be a priority.

“Our response to that is that it’s no longer an option, it’s a necessity,” Morton said.

“What’s it going to take, is it going to take a loss of life before they take this issue seriously,” Morton said.

Morton said she’s had productive conversations with private duty nursing companies, and she really feels that they will ensure the money goes to where it needs to, and if it doesn’t they will be the first ones to speak up about it.