Bipartisan report outlines potential solutions for workforce crisis
More than $460 billion was spent on long-term services and supports (LTSS) in 2021. If the unpaid labor provided by family caregivers was also considered in those totals, the annual estimate would be about $600 billion.
And those numbers, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), are not high enough.
Direct care workers and family caregivers need more financial support, according to a report published by BPC in December. The document includes a bipartisan call-to-action aimed at addressing the ongoing direct care worker shortage in LTSS. A key part of the solution is increasing pay for workers.
For more than two decades, there has been a shortage of paid direct care workers for LTSS – this includes caregivers in institutional and home settings. Despite significant increases in the number of workers, the demand continues to outpace the labor available as the U.S. population ages.
According to the report, 54 percent of nursing homes surveyed last year limited admissions because of short staffing. Home health care providers reported turning away more than 25 percent of patients, also because they didn’t have enough people to care for them.
Solving this problem will not be easy, but topping the list of suggestions from the BPC was promoting a more supportive work environment for direct care workers. Notably, the BPC encourages greater surveillance and oversight from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) related to payment rates, so direct care workers are paid market rates.
The report also noted how important it is to support family caregivers, as they relieve stress on the direct care workforce and provide a significant portion of LTSS care. Family caregivers are vital to the success of so many seeking to live at home and in their communities, according to the report.
“Shortages are straining the health care system and harming care access, quality, and costs,” the report notes. “Direct care workers are critical to broader efforts to promote high quality, cost-effective care for individuals with complex needs, and a shortage of these workers is likely to have negative effects on health care spending in the long term.”
