GNYHA’s September 26 continuing care membership meeting featured guest speaker David C. Grabowski, PhD, Professor, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Grabowski discussed workforce challenges in the care of older adults and ways to plan for the future of long-term care. Roxanne Tena-Nelson, GNYHA Senior Advisor, hosted the meeting, which included State and Federal policy and payment updates from GNYHA staff.
“When it comes to nursing home care, staffing is the most important input, and it’s never been more challenging,” said Dr. Grabowski. His recommendations to ease the continuing care workforce problem include leveraging immigration to complement existing workforce solutions and doing a better job encouraging people to work in long-term care settings. His research demonstrated that an increase in immigrant health care workers did not increase wages and significantly improved quality outcomes in areas such as avoidable readmissions, pressure ulcers, and infections. He outlined existing temporary and permanent immigration programs for skilled workers or non-agricultural workers and called for revisions in new visa policies to better target direct caregivers. Dr. Grabowski also advocated for new programs that create a path to permanent residency, similar to Canada’s fast-track program. He noted that additional workforce solutions would also be needed, including increasing reimbursement rates, increasing financial accountability, and providing career advancement.