Findings from Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies Update Understanding of Health and Society (Home and Community-based Workforce for Patients With Serious Illness Requires Support To Meet Growing Needs)

2019 JUN 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Investigators publish new report on Health and Medicine - Health and Society. According to news reporting from San Francisco, United States, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Home health and personal care aides are one of the largest groups of health care workers in the US, with nearly three million people providing direct care for people with serious illness living in the community. These home care workers face challenges in recruitment, training, retention, and regulation, and there is a lack of data and research to support evidence-based policy change.”

Funders for this research include Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HRSA, Public Health Institute, California Health Care Foundation, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research, California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, California Board of Registered Nursing, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, San Francisco Human Services Agency, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, George Washington University, Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, AARP, UnitedHealth Group, Health Management Associates, IHS Markit, Partners Healthcare, HealthImpact, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Association of Women’s Health Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses, Columbia University, Sodexo USA, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 775 Benefits Group, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Parker Home, Retirement Research Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation, National Council State Boards of Nursing, HUD, New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Moore Foundation project.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, “Personal care aides receive little formal training, and they experience low pay and a lack of respect for the skill required for their jobs. High turnover and occupational injury rates are widely reported. There is little research on the factors associated with higher-quality home care, the extent to which worker training affects client outcomes, and how regulations affect access to and quality of home care.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Health care leaders should seek to fill these gaps in knowledge, support the establishment of training standards and programs, implement Medicaid reimbursement strategies that incentivize improvements in pay and working conditions, reform regulations that now prevent the full utilization of home care workers, and create sustainable career pathways in home care policies.”

For more information on this research see: Home and Community-based Workforce for Patients With Serious Illness Requires Support To Meet Growing Needs. Health Affairs, 2019;38(6):902-909. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. Spetz, University of California, Econ, Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States. Additional authors for this research include S.A. Chapman, R.I. Stone and N. Bryant.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00021. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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