By MAYA KAUFMAN
05/01/2023 10:00 AM EDT
Good morning and welcome to the Weekly New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you posted on what’s coming up this week in health care news, and offer a look back at the important news from last week.
Home care workers and those who rely on them have long rallied to raise workers’ pay to 150 percent of the regional minimum wage, arguing that seniors and people with disabilities are struggling to find home health aides to help them continue living independently.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget is expected to leave them far short of that.
Draft language that has been circulating among lawmakers, lobbyists and advocates indicates a tentative deal to raise workers’ wages each year through 2027, when their pay rate would be indexed to rise with inflation.
However, there are caveats that have raised at least a few eyebrows.
The first is that an hourly wage increase of $1 planned to start in October — a relic of last year’s budget that approved a phased-in $3 hourly increase — would not happen as planned.
Instead, downstate home care workers would get a $1.55 per hour raise come January, while workers in the rest of the state would see another $1.35 per hour. The next two years would bring 55-cent annual increases.
But there’s a catch: Home care workers downstate currently make an hourly base wage of $17, but their employers are also required to pay supplemental wages in cash or in benefits...
Over the last year, beyond traditional healthcare and federal procurement matters, the government has pursued federal False Claims Act (FCA) investigations and enforcement across high-risk areas, i...