advocacy – Hearts for Home Care

Reflecting on South Carolina’s and Georgia’s First Year with a Full-Time GAO Program

By: Melissa Allman, GAO Director for South Carolina and Georgia

Thank you to the many advocates that contributed to SC and GA’s successes in 2018!

What a difference a year makes. This time last year I was just transitioning out of my role as Division Director for the Palmetto Division and into my new role directing our advocacy activities in South Carolina and Georgia. I didn’t know I was in for so much! As I reflect back on 2018, my thoughts go immediately to two things: First, the successes that we were able to generate for our staff and clients and secondly, the many BAYADA leadership, staff, and clients that shared their voices and helped us win!

South Carolina

This year not only were we able to achieve an 8.2% rate increase for all personal care Medicaid waiver services in South Carolina, but we made so much headway engaging our office staff, field staff, and clients. As one person running around in the state house, I can only do so much. It is your stories and your voices that truly have made our first full-time year in South Carolina a remarkably successful year.

Aside from our rate increase, South Carolina advocates hosted five home visits with state lawmakers, hosted two legislative roundtables, and enabled Speaker Pro Tempore Tommy Pope attended a Hero Ceremony for his constituent—a home health aide from RHS. In addition, we attended several events to support our champions. Then-CLP Director, Haley Keisler was named South Carolina Home Care and Hospice Association’s (SCHCHA) 2018 Professional of the Year, and ROC client Mitchell H.’s mom and caregiver, Tammy Roberts, was recognized as the SCHCHA 2018 Caregiver of the Year.

Left: SCHCHA Executive Director Tim Rogers (left) and I (right) pose with SCHCHA’s 2018 Caregiver of the Year Tammy Roberts (center) and her grandson.

Right: SCHCHA Executive Director Tim Rogers (left) and I (right) pose with SCHCHA’s 2018 Professional of the Year, former CLP director and current AVL director Haley Keisler and her family.

Additionally, we were able to engage a record 25 Hearts for Home Care ambassadors and advocates to Lobby Day, where we connected BAYADA staff to lawmakers to share why our families deserve to be able to stay together through home care.

Georgia

As I reflect back on the past year, my heart is full of gratitude for all of Georgia’s leadership, Ambassadors, and advocates. Your support and advocacy made all the difference! Not only were we able to generate a rate increase for private duty nursing (PDN) services under the Georgia Pediatric Program (GAPP) waiver, but we’ve made our voices heard and our industry and company better known in the state capitol. We are truly set up for a stellar 2019!

So far in 2019 we have already began meeting with Georgia’s House and Senate leadership and the Georgia Department of Community Health (GCH). We are seeking to further increase the RN and LPN rates under the GAPP program and gain enhancements for PDN waivers for the adult population under the New Options Waiver (NOW), Comprehensive Supports Waiver (COMP) and Independent Care Waiver (ICWP) programs. We will be seeking even further involvement from our GA advocates, and I am excited to see what we can accomplish together!

Meetings are already underway for 2019: I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together for GA!

It was a true honor to work along side of you all, and I’m looking forward to working with you as we continue to raise awareness for our state’s most vulnerable children and adults. Thank you to the many advocates that made 2018 a success, and that will help pave the way for more successes in South Carolina in 2019 and beyond!

Across the Country, Parents and Home Care Supporters Advocate for Better Wages for Caregivers

We know the struggles families can face with home care: The call-outs and missed shifts, the lack of sleep, the caregivers who are like family but can’t afford to make their own ends meet, and the frustration that comes when you or your loved one can’t access the care that is deemed medically necessary. We also know the value and impact that sharing our voices has.

Recently, home care advocates have made the news for their efforts across the country. Specifically, on December 28, the Washington Post covered the impact that providers and parents are having in driving public awareness of the struggles that Marylanders and Virginians are having in accessing the skilled nursing home care their families need.

Washington Post reporter Tara Bahrampour points to low reimbursement rates in both states as the major issue contributing to families’ struggles—

“The reason lies in a stark state-by-state discrepancy in the pay in-home nurses receive through Medicaid. Maryland and Virginia have set reimbursement rates significantly lower than surrounding jurisdictions…As a result, licensed practical nurses [LPNs] are finding more lucrative positions out of state or at hospitals or other care institutions that pay more, leaving many homebound Medicaid patients without services.”

Hearts for Home Care has been leading the charge in Maryland, where a coalition of home care clients, parents, providers, and other advocates are pushing for a 25 percent increase for skilled home nursing services. Advocates say that this increase—half of which would have to come from state coffers—would serve to alleviate families’ inability to access care an average of 17 percent of the time, as reported by the state’s Department of Health. Hearts for Home Care advocate and BAYADA Home Health Care director Shannon Gahs says:

“Maryland is failing its citizens who have significant medical disabilities. Failing to provide care 17 percent of the time not only creates a dangerous situation for the person who relies on that care—it harms his or her family. Parents are calling out of work and losing the sleep they need to stay healthy to support their family. They’re doing everything they can to keep their family members safe, but this is not how it is supposed to be. We have to do better.”

In comparison, neighboring Delaware found that shifts are missed 7 percent of the time. There, the state reimburses providers at a rate approximately 30 percent higher for LPN home care services.

In California, Governor Jerry Brown recently proposed a whopping 50 percent wage increase for home care nurses—a move that advocates have pushed for over the past several years. As with families across the country, Californians who require skilled nursing home care have been struggling to get nursing care for their loved ones. Advocates report that under Medi-Cal—the state’s health care system for low income and disabled Californians—rates have not been addressed in 18 years.

While both the Maryland and California proposals are still pending, home care advocates have been successful in driving public and legislative awareness of low reimbursement rates and the impact on families’ access across the country in recent years. Most recently, the home care industry has seen reimbursement rate increases in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and New Jersey among other states. It starts with educating legislators through advocacy via any number of channels: Traditional and social media, letters, phone calls, meetings, and more.

While advocacy can seem like an intimidating activity to many who do not yet engage in it, it’s important that we share our advocacy wins with the home care and health care community at-large. As illustrated in recent news, when we band together to leverage our voices in unison, big changes can happen. It’s important to take that first step and make your message heard on behalf of the millions of Americans that rely on home care.

To learn more about how you can engage in home care advocacy, visit www.heartsforhomecare.com or email advocacy@bayada.com today.

ADVOCATE OPINION: The Impact of Home Health Care in my Life

UPDATE, January 11, 2019: After advocate Dimpal Patel sent her opinion piece to her local paper–the Gaston Gazette–they sent out a reporter who profiled Dimpal and the impact her home care services have had on her in greater detail! Great work advocating Dimpal!

BAYADA Home Health Care client and Hearts for Home Care advocate Dimpal Patel shares her view on home health care in an opinion submitted to her local newspaper.

Home care advocate Dimpal and her BAYADA nurse, Chastity.

I might sound like your typical local 23-year-old: I recently graduated from UNC Charlotte with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. I absolutely loved living independently on campus, and I love to play games and watch movies. But I am very different from most 23-year-olds you know because I rely on a trach and ventilator in order to survive, and it’s because of my home care nurses that I am able to grow and thrive independently.

My two BAYADA Home Health Care nurses—Chastity and Toni—have been with me for nine and six years each. They are like family to me, and they really are lifesavers. Without them, my parents would not be able to work and keep me at home, and I certainly would not have been able to experience college life. Chastity and Toni not only provide me with the skilled services that I need to survive, but they really are like best friends to me. I can’t imagine what my life would be without them—not only would it be without my two friends, but I’d likely be stuck in the hospital, a nursing home, or rely on my mom or dad to quit their job to take care of me.

My worst fear is that lawmakers cut Medicaid funding like they tried to do in Washington last year. If this happened, not only would I likely lose my nurses, but I’d be at risk of having to move into a nursing home. As someone who has experienced living independently and how it has allowed me to earn a degree and contribute to society, I ask that our state and federal legislators be mindful of what funding and service cuts can mean—not only to the state’s financially needy or to the elderly—but to 23-year-olds like me who want to continue living a full life.

-Dimpal Patel, Belmont, NC

Advocacy Win! Home Care Employee Christine Detweiler’s Advocacy Efforts Lead to New SMA Law

Christine’s advocacy efforts led to the ultimate win: a new law that will benefit families!

Rep. Marguerite Quinn’s home visit with a five-year old client with SMA led her to introduce a bill about newborn screening for the disease!

Pennsylvania Hearts for Home Care Ambassador Christine Detweiler has always been a diligent advocate, but recently, her efforts have proven that home care employees can truly go beyond the call of duty for clients and staff by serving as their voices in our state capitals.

“Home care is important to so many Pennsylvanians, and many aren’t as readily able to meet with legislators to share their stories,” said Christine. “I see advocacy as an extension of why I do what I do as a home care employee: We need to make sure we get out there to be a voice for those who don’t have one!”

Christine has been progressively adding more interactions to her advocacy portfolio—Over the past year-and-a-half she focused on meeting legislators in their district offices, and in the past few months she has hosted multiple home visits. Home visits are the most impactful way to demonstrate the importance of home care to legislators because it gives them a chance to see firsthand how clients receive services. To say Christine’s home visit resonated with Pennsylvania state Representative Marguerite Quinn is an understatement.

A few months ago, Christine led the representative on a home visit with five-year old client Gideon M. who suffers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). His mother shared their heartwarming story and opened up about their family’s challenges and Gideon’s ever-growing needs. Her story impacted the representative so deeply that shortly after the visit, Rep. Quinn emailed Christine to further assess the family’s needs and determine how she could help them obtain a transportation cart that would make Gideon’s care easier. The outreach didn’t stop there.

Rep. Quinn recently reported to Christine that she has arranged for a builder to come into the family’s home to build custom doors to create a private area for Gideon downstairs. She also reported that she contacted a rotary to find out if the family can be provided with a generator so that they do not need to constantly worry about their home’s power going out. It is truly remarkable how Christine’s efforts have impacted her client and his care.

In addition to her efforts for Gideon’s family, Rep. Quinn introduced a bill that would add SMA screening to the newborn screening list to help diagnose this disease before a child is even born. After introducing this legislation, Rep. Quinn encouraged the state Newborn Screening Advisory Board to support the measure. As a result of her continued efforts, this past month Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine signed the recommendation.

The Hearts for Home Care Team can’t be prouder of the impact that Christine has made! Her passion and tenacity has reached the hearts of many legislators, and she is truly making a name for herself in Harrisburg as a tireless advocate!

A special thanks to Rep. Quinn for her work to get this law on the books on behalf of all of Pennsylvania’s future families. Click here to read the opinion piece that Gideon’s mom, Ruth M., authored, and The Intelligencer published!

To learn more about how your office can host a home visit, or ways you can get involved with advocacy on behalf of all home care staff and clients, email advocacy@bayada.com today.

Pictured: Christine Detweiler (left) poses with fellow home care advocates and state Representative Craig Staats during The Pennsylvania Home Care Association’s Advocacy Day

Combatting the In-Home Caregiver Crisis: What Can We Do?

North Carolina family meets with their state legislator to discuss the importance of home care in their lives.

Whether you worry about your aging parents’ ability to remember to take their medication on time or you have a medically-complex child that requires 24-7 skilled nursing care, families that rely on home care across the country are feeling the squeeze: There just aren’t enough quality in-home caregivers, and it is quickly becoming a crisis. While more of the general public is beginning to understand the negative impact this is having on our communities, there is much more to be done to mitigate the impending consequences. Together, we can advocate to combat this looming access-to-care crisis.

We’ve read the articles and we know the facts. Home care is the most cost-effective and patient-preferred healthcare setting for individuals and families who want to remain at home. This is true for older Americans who wish to age in place to parents who believe their child should live at home and not be raised in costly institutional settings. Moreover, demand for in-home caregivers will be continue to increase as baby boomers age and better treatments for chronic illnesses and disabilities continue to become more widely available.

If home health care is in high demand, why are we still facing a shortage of available workers? Home care providers struggle to recruit and retain enough quality caregivers to keep up with the growing demand. Because many insurance companies still do not cover in-home healthcare services, many home care providers rely on government reimbursement rates to cover provided services. That is: When a patient is prescribed and authorized for in-home care, the state reimburses the home care provider for delivering that service. The provider relies on that reimbursement rate to not only pay the direct care worker’s wages, benefits, supplies, and training, but also to cover wages and costs for the workers needed to coordinate and supervise in-home staff.

While rates vary widely depending on the service and the state the care is delivered in, there is a dominant trend that contributes to providers’ inability to keep up with demand: State governments’ reimbursement rates are too low to attract and retain the proper, high-quality workforce necessary to deliver this care. And there are several competitors at play: Hospitals and other institutional settings like nursing homes are able to pay workers more because one caregiver can deliver multiple services to multiple people during one shift, so institutions are able to rely on multiple reimbursements to cover employee wages and costs. Additionally, the home care industry faces competition from non-healthcare industries like fast food companies and retailers, which can often pay workers at competitive rates and offer more consistent schedules and other benefits.

While home health care offers one-on-one care to vulnerable individuals at a lower cost, these reimbursement rates have stagnated and fallen past the cost-of-living across many states. Some states, have not addressed reimbursement rates for decades, putting home care providers at even more of a disadvantage when competing for labor. For example, California has not increased its reimbursement rate for Medicaid home nursing services for nearly two decades. Even the most compassionate home care workers who enjoy the personalized nature of home care are leaving the industry for better-paying jobs in neighboring states and in other settings and industries.

Who can resolve this issue? By and large, state governments are responsible for making decisions that affect home care, including reviewing reimbursement rates and adjusting them so that home health care providers can attract the workforce necessary to keep vulnerable state populations at home. While the rates vary in each state, one thing is consistent across state lines: legislators, who are responsible for making these decisions, are under great pressure to keep state budgets in line while making the necessary expenditures to all of the departments, industries, and populations that need the government’s financial support. All too often, other industries’ voices are heard louder, and home health care continues to fall by the wayside.

Is there any good news? Yes: People are beginning to see the problem. Public awareness of the importance of home care and of the impending access-to-care crisis is becoming more widespread. People care about the issue now more than ever before, and people across the country are beginning to realize that, even if it doesn’t affect them now, home care will impact their lives in the future.

Reports, studies, and articles have made information about the home care industry and the widening labor gap more available. Mercer Health Provider Advisory recently created an interactive map that visually depicts the deficit of home health aides and other healthcare workers in specific states and across the US through 2024. Articles have come out in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, and in local news outlets in South Carolina and Rhode Island, among other states.

And the other good news is evident to many: Home care is simply the right choice. Many legislators are aware of home care’s cost-saving potential, especially as home care keeps people out of costlier institutional settings and prevents ER stays and hospital admissions. And while they may understand the advantages that home care offers families in general, not all legislators realize the impact home care has on the families that they directly represent as public officials.

Public awareness isn’t enough. Action is necessary. Studies, reports, articles, and direct lobbying efforts from home care providers and state and federal associations and partnerships have raised the public’s and legislators’ awareness of home care as a service. However, lawmakers’ awareness of home care issues have not yet spurred them into taking action to address stagnating reimbursement rates and providers’ inability to compete for a fair share of the labor market. We must leverage our collective voices by truly showing legislators what home care is, how it impacts us, and what happens if families can’t access care. Legislators must change laws and policies to reprioritize home health care for their constituents.

What can you do? Join the movement. As individuals, we are responsible for telling our elected officials what is important to us and what those we elect to office should prioritize and champion. Advocating for home care is easy: Call your state and federal representatives and senators to request a meeting to discuss home care, or even simply send a letter, an email, or even a Facebook message or Tweet to let them know about what home care means to you. The Hearts for Home Care platform was specifically created to help members of the home care community learn about opportunities to get involved in home care advocacy. There are plenty of ways big and small to get involved, the most important thing is that we share our voices with one unified message: Home care is important to me, and it should be important to you too.

—

To learn more about Hearts for Home Care and to register, please visit our website, follow our Facebook and Twitter, or email us at advocacy@bayada.com today.

Using Social Media as an Advocacy Tool

Every day, BAYADA employees, clients, and families use social media to connect with one another, keep in touch with distant friends and relatives, and learn about news and events near and far. But social media has evolved far past the traditional definition of “social.” In today’s world, social media gives the home care community the opportunity to spread public awareness about home care’s impact and the opportunity to more conveniently advocate for better home care laws and policies.

Advocacy simply means communicating to elected officials what home care means to you and how it impacts your everyday life. Because our state and federal lawmakers make decisions that affect home care providers’ ability to recruit and retain quality caregivers to serve our clients and their families, it is important that they are able to connect home care to their constituents’ names and faces. Social media outlets, particularly Facebook and Twitter, allow for members of the home care community to advocate from the convenience of their home or office.

Sharing a video of a family expressing the value that their in-home nurse or aide brings to them and their loved ones, for example, enables other social media users to understand how home care impacts them, their neighbors, and thousands of people across the country. Our Hearts for Home Care platform is designed to share videos, quotes, photos, news, and advocacy opportunities with elected officials and the community at-large.

In addition to this platform, it’s important that members of the home care community—including staff, clients, and family members—are aware of the power they hold at their own fingertips. Getting involved in advocacy through social media is easy, and the more we share our voices the better we can be heard. In addition to following our Facebook and Twitter, you can tell your elected officials what home care means to you in three easy steps:

Find your elected officials on Hearts for Home Care’s Find My Legislators page
Like and follow them on social media (the links are right on the page!)
Connect with them regularly: Share Hearts for Home Care’s posts with your legislators, post on their pages about what home care means to you, or message them to ask them about meeting them in-person to talk about the value of home care. You’ll find that their pages will also give you information about news and events like Senior Expos and Town Halls that may be valuable for you, your staff, or your clients.

Social media not only brings people who value home health care together, but it shows those who have not yet needed home health care its value and necessity. It gives our industry a face and a voice and allow our representatives and senators to see that it affects real people in their communities, and it shows our elected officials that our friends and neighbors with special medical needs should be able to receive the care they need in the place the feel the safest and most comfortable–at home. To learn more about how you can be a voice for home care, join Hearts for Home Care today.

Advocate Spotlight: Christine Detweiler is a Voice for Her Pediatric Client Gideon

From home visit to house bill: Christine’s advocacy efforts lead to a bill introduction!

In addition to her efforts for Gideon’s family, Rep. Quinn recently introduced a bill that would add SMA screening to the newborn screening list to help diagnose this disease before a child is even born. As of today, the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Bill (HB 2484) has been introduced and placed in the Health Committee for consideration. Representative Quinn reached out to her House colleagues and asked for co-sponsors for the important resolution and to bring awareness to this condition and to assist families across Pennsylvania with early intervention. We are looking forward to this bill passing through committee once legislators are back in Harrisburg.

To learn more about how your office can host a home visit, or ways you can get involved with advocacy on behalf of all home care staff and clients, email advocacy@bayada.com today.

BAYADA Officially Launches Government Affairs Office Overseeing New York and Rhode Island

The Government Affairs Office (GAO) is excited to announce its expansion into New York and Rhode Island! Expansion into both states means that GAO can begin directly lobbying state lawmakers for better home care policies and reimbursement rates, and can begin to directly involve New York and Rhode Island staff, clients, and families in advocacy efforts.

What is GAO’s mission?

The BAYADA Government Affairs Office (GAO) will represent the Company to all levels of local, state and federal government entities, regulatory agencies and community organizations (What we do)
Our mission is to act as a voice for our clients, their families and our employees through education, advocacy, service and research (What makes us different)
This will result in legislation, regulation, and policies which are supportive of home care services that provide the highest quality of care and will enable patients to remain in their homes (What benefits our clients receive)

What are GAO’s goals?

Build awareness
Secure adequate resources
Foster policies supportive of home health care
Engage staff and clients in advocacy on behalf of BAYADA staff and clients

How does GAO accomplish its mission and goals?

GAO operates through a three-pronged approach:

Direct Lobbying: Accomplished mainly through the GAO director as determined by BAYADA leadership in the state
Grassroots Advocacy: GAO engages employees, clients, and families through our Hearts for Home Care program and our Ambassador program, and through our PACs. Like our Hearts for Home Care Facebook page to be updated on our efforts and relevant home care news.
Supporting our Champions: BAYADA supports state and federal legislators that support home care. Legislators that support home care understand our industry’s issues and our staff and clients’ needs. BAYADA supports our champions largely through our state and federal Political Action Committees (PACs). Rhode Island and New York do not yet have PACs, but stay tuned! Full-time, exempt and salaried office employees are able to support our federal legislators by joining BAYADA’s federal PAC.

The Heart of Client Advocacy: How You Can Make a Difference

Home care client advocates for his disabled wife and his home health aide — Mike Pollock (left) advocates on behalf of his wife Kathy (center in red) and Kathy’s aide Alma (standing)

Imagine this scene: A woman feels a familiar, nagging stiffness in her lower back as she leans over the edge of the tub to bathe her teenage daughter. Her daughter, who has a significant degenerative muscular disease, sits quietly and securely on a customized bath chair that fits snugly inside the tub. The tub area is decorated with different pieces of adaptive equipment such as a specialty grab bar, floor mat, hand-held shower head, and other items to make the bathing process possible for a person who cannot physically jump in and out of the shower. From start to finish, the entire bathing process takes more than an hour to safely complete.

Whether it is giving a bath, doing a tracheostomy change, starting a gastronomy tube feed, or transporting someone with multiple pieces of medical equipment, families who care for a loved one with a significant medical condition live a vastly different lifestyle than many other families. This lifestyle is not easily understood unless you’ve experienced it.

Legislative advocacy makes a difference

We have learned that when our clients and families talk to our elected officials and the people who make decisions about health care funding and regulations, it makes a difference. We have seen clear evidence across our country that when more people speak up, creating a stronger and louder voice, it is more likely that government-funded insurances—such as Medicaid and Medicare—will adjust funding and regulations to benefit families.

Many of our elected officials have personally not had the experience of bathing an adult child, performing a tracheostomy change, or providing the other types of medical and personal care that are frequently needed in the home. It’s also sometimes forgotten that this care is not just provided once a week or month, but many times a day or week, over years—over a lifetime. The continuous nature of these care needs is what makes home health care services so necessary.

We consult with legislators and insurance officials and ask for increases in our reimbursement rates so we can hire more employees and reduce open shifts for our clients. Our requests often are not approved. However, when the families who actually use the home care services join with us, it makes a big difference.

When clients and families explain why it is important to them not to have open shifts or why their paid caregiver needs a better wage, and share their personal experiences from within the home, it helps these officials understand the need for home care. The people who we petition for increases and better regulations are the same elected officials you vote for, and who are entrusted with serving the best interests of those they represent. This is at the heart of how and why people gathering and joining voices can make a difference. This is the heart of client advocacy.

How can you get involved?

Think about your personal experiences and consider what it’s like to care for a loved one who is in your home or nearby. Let’s unlock those firsthand experiences about the difference a home care nurse, aide, or therapist makes in the care that your loved one needs or receives. Voices of families coming together can create opportunities. Better insurance reimbursement can help us recruit more nurses and aides to fill open shifts. Better wages can mean a more sustainable career for home care workers, which in turn allows more people to remain at home while they receive the care they need.

For more information about how you can join the movement for a better tomorrow for home care, visit our website and sign up to be a Heart for Home Care today.

Educating Legislators Key to Success in Both States

Curt Knott, Chris Knott, Ali Knott, Kim Hill, Mandy Brady, Shannon Gahs, and Maggie Tracy met with Rep. Kevin Hensley to thank him for his support of home health care.

In both Delaware and Maryland, the legislature is keyed up to see a lot of change in both the leadership of key committees that debate our issues and the rank-and-file membership of those committees. BAYADA, together with our trade associations and other providers, has the potential to use this time of change to educate newly-elected and newly-promoted representatives about the complex and detailed issues within Medicaid reimbursement. The best way we can recruit these leaders to become Champions of Home Health Care is to show it to them in person!

What can You do?

Invite a legislator to your office.
- Whether it is for a competency training, an awards ceremony, a community or recruiting event, legislators will understand our complex issues better when they are exposed to it more. Invite them for a lunchtime Town Hall meeting with your office staff, to talk about the issues that affect your work, or ask them to present your next Heroes Award!
Invite a legislator on a Home Visit.
- Legislators are happy to meet the people they represent and seeing our clients is sometimes the best way to explain how important home care is to their lives.
Invite candidates or recently-elected legislators to sit in on training.
- Whether nurses are gaining new skills or are brushing up on existing ones, showing legislators how much effort we put into training and ensuring the skills of our nurses goes a long way toward helping them understand that home health care encompasses a myriad of different specialties.
Join a Political Action Committee (PAC).
- It’s an election year and running for office is expensive. Candidate committees need contributions to purchase yard signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts, and to mail post cards to voters. Through our PACs, BAYADA supports those legislators who understand our issues and support our clients and employees with good home health care policy in their bids for re-election! Join the PAC easily today.

These interactions make a huge difference. A legislator in Delaware, someone who has been a supporter of BAYADA for a long time, told us this year that she wants to know more about our day-to-day. She said other groups who are asking for increases in the state budget call her weekly. She and her associates want to hear about new issues, training, community events, staff meetings, awards and current events in our world. Being up to date will help her advocate better for our clients and employees in private negotiations!

Shannon and Maggie are here to help! If you are interested in helping to educate a legislator but need some support in planning or preparing for it, contact us.