Pennsylvania Homecare Association Responds to “Report” on Homecare Funding

Harrisburg (April 5, 2023) – Teri Henning, CEO of the Pennsylvania Homecare Association, issued the following statement in response to today’s report, Where Does the Money Go? Funding Accountability for Pennsylvania’s For-Profit and Private Equity-Owned Home Care Agencies, which suggests, among other things, that for-profit or private equity-funded homecare agencies are not investing in quality care or misspending public funds. These allegations are not only unsupported by the facts in the homecare industry, they are not even supported by today’s “report.”

The Pennsylvania Homecare Association is a membership organization with nearly 700 members providing home health, homecare, and hospice services across the Commonwealth. Our members include agencies of all sizes, forprofits and non-profits, family businesses, public companies, and private equity-funded organizations. PHA members are committed to ensuring access to quality care for all Pennsylvanians in need and improving professional standards. More than ten years ago, PHA and our members led the charge for homecare licensing, training requirements, and regulatory standards. Since then, we have continued to support quality care, including value-based purchasing initiatives (a proposal in the report), compliance efforts, a core curriculum for caregivers, and a pilot program for agency credentialing.

PHA and our members support quality metrics, higher reimbursement rates and wages for DCWs, and transparency in the system. We believe that all stakeholders need to work together to protect and ensure high-quality in-home care for all who need it. Reports that disparage individual homecare agencies because of the way they are funded, however, do not advance this goal. In fact, PHA members singled out in this report provide benefits, overtime, training programs, and other employee incentives and benefits to hire and retain high-quality caregivers.

Pennsylvania’s homecare agencies are responsible to the consumers they serve and the caregivers they employ. Contrary to the report’s suggestion, they are also regulated by the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and more, and accountable to the managed care organizations that credential and pay them. They are regularly surveyed, audited, reviewed, and revalidated. Many have full-time compliance staff to keep up with frequently changing rules and expectations.

All providers, caregivers, and stakeholders in homecare agree that access to quality home-based care is critical to the future of our healthcare system. We also agree that funding is woefully inadequate to support the growing demand for quality in-home caregivers. At PHA, we welcome the opportunity to engage in open, honest, and productive discussions with all stakeholders in home-based care to improve access to and high-quality care for all.

About PHA… The Pennsylvania Homecare Association is a statewide organization of nearly 700 home health, homecare and hospice providers. PHA members provide quality care and serve as advocates for their patients and clients on a variety of healthcare issues. PHA and its members work to improve professional standards and ensure access to quality homecare throughout the Commonwealth. To learn more, visit www.pahomecare.org.