Establishes the home care jobs innovation program and the home care jobs innovation fund to identify, develop and support projects throughout the state designed to increase the number of individuals who become home care workers and to increase the employment retention of individuals who are employed as home care workers; provides for the granting of awards to such projects; makes an appropriation therefor.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A601
SPONSOR: Kim TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to establishing the
home care jobs innovation program; to amend the state finance law, in
relation to establishing the home care jobs innovation fund; making an
appropriation therefor; and providing for the repeal of such provisions
upon expiration thereof
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To create a fund to support pilot projects across the state that will
enhance and improve the quality of home care services by growing and
retaining a highly skilled caregiving workforce
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Adds a new section to the public health law establishing the
home care jobs innovation program. This program grants awards to
projects to support innovative programs that support recruiting and
retention efforts within the homecare workforce.
Section 2: establishes a home care jobs innovation fund to support
projects selected by the home care jobs innovation program.
Section 3-4: sets appropriation and effective date.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
JUSTIFICATION:
New York's population is aging, with seniors representing the fastest
growing demographic statewide. And the trend is expected to intensify at
an alarming rate: While the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics
projects a 1.3 percent rate of growth overall by 2040, the population of
people over 80 is expected to swell by 42.2 percent. Along with this
growth will come a surge in demand for long-term home and community-
based services and supports-an area already grappling with workforce
shortages, especially in more rural regions of our state. According to
PHI, New York will need to fill almost 745,000 job openings for home
health and personal care aides between 2016 and 2026. We are nowhere
near prepared to meet this need.
Home health aides and personal care aides provide the majority of paid
hands-on home care that allows consumers to remain in the community. It
is hard work-physically and mentally-and these workers have great influ-
ence over the quality of care and quality of life for our loved ones. If
we do not improve the quality of home care jobs, the workforce shortage
will worsen, driving seniors into much costlier nursing facilities and
draining our Medicaid system even more. We need innovative solutions to
build and sustain this home care workforce before it reaches crisis
proportions.
This bill will create a program to fund the Home Care Jobs Innovation
Fund. Under the administration of the state Department of Health in
conjunction with the state Office for the Aging, this fund would do what
home care providers lack the resources to do themselves-test innovative
approaches to growing and retaining this vital segment of the workforce.
The results from these pilots would help identify promising solutions
that could be adapted statewide.
The funding would cover projects over the course of three years and
provide for three different tiers of projects: tier 1 (ranging from
$100,000 to $300,000 per year), tier 2 (ranging from $300,001 to
$750,000 per year), and tier 3 (ranging from $750,001 to $1,000,000 per
year). Depending on the applicants, the funding could be spent on
different combinations of grantees and project tiers.
The awards would include all project-related costs, including adminis-
tration, implementation, and evaluation, as well as all worker-related
costs, such as additional compensation or bonuses. The awards would
include a diversity of regions (including urban and rural), types of
grantees (such as home care agencies, organizations that work with CDPAP
consumers, and organizations with experience in home care workforce
development), and tiers of grants.
Our population is graying faster than ever before, and the demand for
services will only continue to grow. Building up this vital workforce
not only aligns with a majority of seniors' wishes to remain in their
own homes; it also makes good economic sense by keeping them out of much
costlier, taxpayer-funded institutions. (NYSOFA estimates that the annu-
al cost per person for home care services averages about $6,000-compared
to about $150,000 per person for institutional care.)
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: A1857/Kim, Referred to Health
2021-2022: A7540/Kim, Referred to Health S4222/May, Referred to Finance
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
$15,000,000 over three years
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect Immediately
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
601
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 8, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. KIM, REYES, EACHUS, DeSTEFANO -- read once and
referred to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to establishing the
home care jobs innovation program; to amend the state finance law, in
relation to establishing the home care jobs innovation fund; making an
appropriation therefor; and providing for the repeal of such
provisions upon expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section
2 3613-a to read as follows:
3 § 3613-a. Home care jobs innovation program. 1. The department, in
4 conjunction with the office for the aging, shall establish a home care
5 jobs innovation program. Such program shall:
6 (a) identify, develop and support projects throughout the state
7 designed to increase the number of individuals who become home care
8 workers;
9 (b) identify, develop and support projects throughout the state
10 designed to increase the employment retention of individuals who are
11 employed as home care workers; and
12 (c) grant awards pursuant to subdivision two of this section, subject
13 to appropriation, to the home care jobs innovation fund established
14 pursuant to section ninety-nine-ss of the state finance law.
15 2. The department, in conjunction with the office for the aging, shall
16 grant awards to projects identified or developed pursuant to subdivision
17 one of this section. Such awards shall be for the state fiscal years two
18 thousand twenty-five--two thousand twenty-six, two thousand twenty-six-
19 -two thousand twenty-seven and two thousand twenty-seven--two thousand
20 twenty-eight, and shall not exceed five million dollars in any state
21 fiscal year. Awards shall be granted at three tier levels as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00213-03-5
A. 601 2
1 Award Level Amount of Award
2 Tier 1 $100,000 or greater but less
3 than $300,000
4 Tier 2$300,000 or greater but less
5 than $750,000
6 Tier 3 $750,000 to $1,000,000
7 3. Awards granted pursuant to subdivision two of this section shall be
8 used to fund project costs, including, but not limited to, project eval-
9 uation, project administration, project implementation, and employee
10 related costs, including additional employee compensation and bonuses.
11 Awards shall be granted for both for-profit and not-for-profit projects,
12 and, to the greatest extent practicable, be granted uniformly throughout
13 both rural and urban areas of the state to reflect the diversity
14 reflected by those areas.
15 4. The department, in conjunction with the office for the aging, is
16 authorized to promulgate rules and regulations necessary for the imple-
17 mentation of this section.
18 § 2. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 99-ss to
19 read as follows:
20 § 99-ss. Home care jobs innovation fund. 1. There is hereby estab-
21 lished in the joint custody of the commissioner of health, the director
22 of the office for the aging and the comptroller, a special fund to be
23 known as the "home care jobs innovation fund".
24 2. Such fund shall consist of all moneys appropriated, credited, or
25 transferred thereto from any other fund or source pursuant to law.
26 Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the state from receiving
27 grants, gifts, or bequests for the purposes of the fund, as defined in
28 this section, and depositing them into the fund according to law.
29 3. Monies of the fund shall be expended only for the purposes of
30 granting awards pursuant to section thirty-six hundred thirteen-a of the
31 public health law.
32 4. Monies of the fund shall be payable on the audit and warrant of the
33 comptroller on vouchers approved and certified by the commissioner of
34 health and the director of the office for the aging.
35 5. To the extent practicable, the commissioner of health, in conjunc-
36 tion with the director of the office for the aging, shall ensure that
37 all monies received during a fiscal year are expended prior to the end
38 of that fiscal year.
39 § 3. The sum of five million dollars ($5,000,000), or so much thereof
40 as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated from any moneys in the state
41 treasury in the general fund to the credit of the state purposes account
42 not otherwise appropriated to the home care jobs innovation fund for the
43 purposes of granting awards by the home care jobs innovation program in
44 carrying out the provisions of this act. Such sum shall be payable on
45 the audit and warrant of the state comptroller on vouchers certified or
46 approved in the manner provided by law.
47 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be
48 deemed repealed April 1, 2028.
