Hawaii-2018-HCR120-Introduced

WHEREAS, by 2020, nearly three hundred thousand people will be age sixty-five or older in Hawaii; and

WHEREAS, a significant percentage of these individuals will need life sustaining assistance with the necessary activities of their daily lives, such as bathing, moving, eating, toileting, preparing food, cleaning, and essential shopping, among others to support their continued quality of life; and

WHEREAS, when given the choice, most individuals prefer to receive care at home; and

WHEREAS, home care is less expensive than facility based care; and

WHEREAS, families regularly report an inability to access home care as a result of a shortage of available care workers; and

WHEREAS, home care worker is the fastest growing job in the United States, and home care workers comprise a majority of the total direct care workforce; and

WHEREAS, more than ninety percent of home care workers are women; and

WHEREAS, home care workers in Hawaii are increasingly caring for highly complex client needs, including conditions such as dementia, severe and persistent mental illness, paraplegia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and multiple and complex chronic diseases which may require specialized training or certification to treat properly; and

WHEREAS, there is a need to understand the correlation between caregiver pay, benefits, and training, and the quality of care provided; and

WHEREAS, there is a need to study the provision of home health care in Hawaii and make recommendations to improve the system; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2018, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) and the University of Hawaii (UH) Center on Aging are requested to convene a working group to:

(1) Review the provision of in-home care services in Hawaii;

(2) Make recommendations that will improve the quality of care; and

(3) Include its review and recommendations in a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the Regular Session of 2019; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the DLIR and UH Center on Aging are requested to convene the in-home care services working group no later than July 1, 2018; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the in-home care services working group's review of the provision of home care in Hawaii and report include:

(1) A description of the various ways in which people in Hawaii receive home care;

(2) A description of the home care workforce, including the relationship of home care workers to the people they are caring for;

(3) A description of the continuum of work being performed;

(4) A description of the skills that home care workers need, the current percentage of Hawaii's home care workers with training or certification, and the nature of that training or certification;

(5) Data regarding how current and expected workforce supply meets demand, including:

(A) Retention rates of caregivers employed by care agencies;

(B) Ability of families to access home care; and

(6) Data regarding the current wages and benefits paid to home care workers and by whom;

(7) Data regarding home care worker and client injuries, including abuse and neglect;

(8) The relationship between the quality of care provided and the wages, benefits and training and certification standards of home care workers;

(9) Evaluation of experiences in other states between increased wages, benefits and training and certification standards and the quality of care provided;

(10) Recommendations on how to improve the quality of care for people receiving home care services in Hawaii;

(11) Recommendations on how to finance home care services in Hawaii; and

(12) Recommendations on how to improve wages and benefits, training and certification requirements and training delivery for home care workers in Hawaii; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the working group should be composed of the following individuals and organizational representatives:

(1) A representative of the DLIR, to co-chair the committee;

(2) A representative of the UH Center on Aging, to co-chair the committee;

(3) An appointee of the Governor;

(4) An appointee of the Senate President;

(5) An appointee of the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(6) An appointee of the Director of Human Services;

(7) An appointee of the Director of Health;

(8) A representative of a not-for-profit provider of home care services to be designated by the Senate President;

(9) A representative of a for-profit provider of homecare services to be designated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

(10) A representative of a community advocacy group working for and with home care workers in Hawaii to be designated by the Governor; and

(11) Additional members, at the discretion of the co-chairs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Director of Health, Director of Human Services, Director of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Director of the University of Hawaii Center on Aging.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Working Group; In-Home Care Services

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	120
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII