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John's usual--
Congratulations to the Huron County Board of DD & the Bears for putting on such a great show at the Bear's All Star Celebrity Basketball Game. Not only was it a really good time, it was also heart-warming just how well attended it was by so many other community members. I've never seen benches run quite so deep! Truly a great event.
The pictures in this week's newsletter from that game were provided by one of CLI's newest staff, Ron Ross. Ron's a serious bowler and will be off this week for a tournament in Reno. He's invited anyone who's interested to tracking his progress to do so using the following link: https://syncscoring.meriq.com/NBS/. His actual competition slots are Monday at 5:30 pm EST & Tuesday 1:30 pm EST.
There's a lot of lobbying in Columbus right now on behalf of Ohio's statewide DD system. The governor has proposed a budget with significant increases in spending, and is supported by both County Boards of DD & private providers. However, there are other sectors that are also trying to get more money for wages for direct care staff-- such as home health & nursing home lobby groups.. There's only so much new money available and historically Ohio's DD system already has upward of $5 Billion that we're spending on approximately 100,000 people with DD. Part of the long-term solution will have to figuring out how to reallocating more available money into direct care wages.
For now though I am grateful that the powers that be are starting to recognize the extent of the DD workforce crisis. However, while it is especially bad post-pandemic, the reality for private providers is that it's been terrible for at least the last 10 years because of the systemic underinvestment in direct care as a career choice. At last week's budget testimony, one of the discussion points was the disparity between public employee direct care jobs vs. what private agencies can afford to pay. Ohio's state run Developmental Centers are struggling to recruit new direct care staff starting at $20 per hour with state benefits (pension, health care, sick time, vacation time, etc.) while private providers' state-wide average for direct care wages are somewhere around $13 per hour with a far less robust benefit package. If the state can't get employees making 50% more with a pension & other perks-- what's the reality that private providers can recruit offering far less?
The inability to hire is both a quality of service problem and a financial problem. Fewer staff means offering less service which means less fee-for-service reimbursement. It's a downward spiral that won't end well. CLI has been fortunate that our investments have allowed us the equity to stay in business so far, but the only long-term sustainable model must have service billing rates that support providers to offer quality services, employ staff at competitive wages & benefits, cover overhead, and earn enough extra margin to keep up with inflation and save for necessary future expenses, such as vehicles, etc.
That's all I have for this week. Happy Spring people! I'm hoping for that lamb-like end of March weather that I've heard tell of. It's Ohio though, so we'll just have to roll with whatever comes.
John
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