Coalition Warns New Jersey Legislators To Not Repeat Mistakes Of Failed California State-Run Home Care Program; Urges Defeat of A-3778/S-2662 Quality Home Care Act.

Business Editors

TRENTON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2003

Pointing to the failure of the budget-busting and scandal-ridden public agency home health care program in California, a coalition of New Jersey home care givers held a press conference at the Statehouse today to urge State Legislators to defeat A-3778/S-2662, a proposal to establish a similar state-run home care program in New Jersey.

"In California, the cost of home care has doubled in the past five years and oversight is almost nonexistent," said Ken Dolan, Executive Director of the Home Care Council of New Jersey and a member of the Coalition for R.E.A.L. Home Care in New Jersey.

The Coalition cited a November 4, 2003 report by the Contra Costa Times that found that "The cost of taxpayer-funded home care for low-income and disabled residents is growing so quickly it threatens to squeeze out other health and social services", and "oversight has dwindled to almost nothing."

Dolan warned, "With New Jersey's budget woes and problems with oversight of the services it provides, the last thing we need is a state-run home care program patterned after the costly and failed California model."

Like California, the proposed New Jersey state-run program would bypass the current home care agency program, and home care workers would become individual contractors paid by the state. Patients then would be required to work from lists provided by the state and do their own hiring and supervision of the home care workers.

The Contra Costa Times found that under this self-directed process "...oversight has dwindled to almost nothing. Patients are free to hire and fire whomever they choose without any competency standards, training requirements, or background checks. The patients sign and submit the workers' time cards, usually with no questions asked."

And, like the California program, the New Jersey proposal would allow patients to hire family members to provide home care services. The Contra Costa Times stated that because of the lack of staff to properly oversee the program "...officials must trust husbands to report hours for their wives; aunts to record billable time for their nephews."

The California public agency home care program has also had its share of scandals. For example, a 79-year-old woman was found on a mattress black with feces and urine. Her house had no electricity and investigators found dozens of cigarette burns on her back. The state had entrusted her care to her sons under the IHSS program. They were later arrested.

The current New Jersey home care system has several important oversight provisions that would be lost if the proposed Quality Home Care legislation is enacted. For example, the home care agencies undertake an assessment of the patient's needs and recommendations are submitted to the state for review as to the level of care needed. The home care agencies provide on-going oversight and supervision of the employees assigned as care givers. Also, every two months the patients are visited by a supervisory nurse who makes an assessment of the quality of home care being provided and the health and well being of the patient. Under the proposed bill, these visits would be limited to once every six months.

"Under the proposed legislation, the current oversight and monitoring of home care services provided by agencies and nurses will be lost," said Mary Ann Christopher, CEO & President of the Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey. "We've seen in California that once this happens, the quality of care goes down and the potential for fraud and abuse rises. Let's not repeat the mistakes of California in New Jersey."

The Coalition for R.E.A.L (Reliable. Established. Affordable. Legitimate) Home Care in New Jersey includes the following organizations: Home Care Council of NJ; Home Care Association of NJ; Home Health Services and Staffing Association of NJ; NJ Hospital Association; NJ Hospice and Palliative Care Organization; NJ State Nurses Association; Visiting Nurse Service System; Puerto Rican Association for Human Development; NJ Commission on Accreditation for Home Care; Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities; National Association for Home Care and Hospice; NJ Adult Day Services Association; NJ Primary Care Association; American Association for Homecare; Community Health Accreditation program; Commerce and Industry Association of NJ; NJ Association of Community Providers.