By Bill Lucia | Editor
Washington voters in 2011 approved a ballot measure setting stricter training and certification requirements for home care aides. But a new state audit suggests that while the heightened standards have improved safety, the certification process is delayed at certain steps and most prospective aides don’t finish it. This at a time when the state is facing a shortage of long-term care workers.
Also in today’s edition…
Washington’s steep path to meeting its 2030 emissions reduction target.
Declines in Obamacare enrollment.
And, a bipartisan look at how to make childcare more affordable.
News tips, feedback, questions? Email us: [email protected]
By Jake Goldstein-Street
Home care aides help older adults or those with disabilities with daily tasks, such as dressing, bathing and getting around. The 2011 initiative led to increased training requirements and testing, as well as FBI background checks for these workers. It also created a registry of aides who’ve had substantiated findings of abuse or neglect.
(Graphic courtesy of the Office of the Washington State Auditor)
One hangup in the system is that the state is verifying the FBI background checks, which auditors say is redundant. The audit also highlights delays with testing, which a caregiver union pins on a contractor that runs the tests.
Two-thirds of those seeking to enter the workforce don’t finish the certification process. And only a fraction of applicants are completing it within 200 days of hire. Some employers have taken to firing and rehiring aides to skirt certification deadlines.
(Photo by Stuart Westmorland/Getty Images)
By Aspen Ford
Washington law calls for reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 45% below 1990 levels by 2030. Reaching that goal promises to be a challenge. It will require steep declines in vehicle tailpipe pollution and comes as data centers are placing heavy new demands on the region’s electricity grid. Meanwhile, infrastructure to move power around the region is lacking and can take years to build. “Clean electricity alone cannot close the gap,” Jeremy Hargreaves, an emissions modeler at the consulting firm Evolved Energy Research, said at a Washington Climate Partnership meeting this week. He said to meet the reduction target, the state will need to pick up the pace of building clean energy projects, and also that it’s “behind the curve” transitioning to electric vehicles. The transportation sector makes up 40% of all emissions in the state.
By Shalina Chatlani
In 49 states, the number of people enrolled in Obamacare health insurance plans has declined since Congress made coverage more expensive by allowing federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year. The lone exception was New Mexico, the only state that has used its own money to fully replace the expired aid, according to a new analysis by KFF, a health policy research group. In Washington, enrollment slipped 9%, the figures show. In states like Washington with their own health insurance marketplaces, the average enrollment drop was 6%, according to KFF. Enrollment fell the most in Ohio and Oklahoma (32%), Arizona (30%), South Carolina (29%), Indiana (28%), Michigan and Minnesota (27%), and Louisiana and Mississippi (26%).
By Kevin Hardy
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers from around the country is calling for an overhaul of the nation’s childcare system, which they say is failing children, parents and providers. The group of 13 Republican and Democratic lawmakers included one Washington legislator — Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Auburn, who chairs the Senate Human Services Committee. The lawmakers spent the past year studying childcare access and affordability problems and offered policy recommendations during the National Conference of State Legislatures annual summit in Chicago this week. Monday’s discussion often turned to New Mexico, where Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last year announced the nation’s first free universal childcare system, funded by state investment earnings from oil and gas revenues.
ICYMI
WA to offer first-ever toll discount for lower-income motorists | by Jerry Cornfield
MultiCare, Premera reach deal to keep coverage for over 100K WA patients | by Jake Goldstein-Street
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