2019: Wage hike for PCAs could force agencies to retrench

StarTribune
5/12/2019 by Neal St. Anthony, Business Columnist

Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) can make a big difference in the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families. Even a couple of hours a day of professional caretaking at home can improve the health and quality of life for the almost 43,000 low-income people with disabilities who currently receive services.

Unfortunately, the turnover rate for this critical job is very high. It’s a tough job, bathing, feeding, changing out equipment, and attending to the needs of people who are vulnerable. The chronic understaffing is in part, though, due to the low wages paid to PCAs, whose wages just went up slightly from minimum wage ($10) to $12-$13 per hour.

Even that small increase might be too much for some home health care agencies to handle, says Andre Best, CEO of Best Home Care.

"Should the underfunded contract move forward, agencies will be forced to close," Mr. Best predicts.

Personal-care attendant Nora Clark playfully arm-wrestled Scott Semo after helping him eat, exercise and finish other tasks.

The business challenge for this increase in pay is that the “reimbursement rate” for the next fiscal year is only scheduled to rise by .41 cents, which does not cover the rise in wages.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services believes that the agencies can absorb the pay raise. Agency owners believe differently.

“The wage floor is now so tight that some employers will go out of business,” said Jeff Bangsberg, veteran advocate for people with disabilities.

Some legislators have vowed to see that the skewed wage issue is worked out so that PCAs can continue to see wages rise for the critical work that they do, while maintaining enough federal and state funding for the home care agencies to stay alive. A more sustainable financial model might not happen this year, legislators say, but it’s coming.