Welcome to summer!! Hope you all stay cool this week.

Advocacy

As you saw, a legislative update webinar has been scheduled and it’s popular!! We had 50 register within couple hours and are nearing 80 now. We also will have 2 sessions at the Annual Meeting that dive further into HR related topics (time off, marijuana, etc). What a way to celebrate our most successful session ever!!

We will be asking members to thank their state legislators for supporting an increase in the home care reimbursement. I sent hand-written notes to the leaders and bill authors and hope you will send a note to your Senator and Representative through our advocacy center.

There are follow-ups needed on some of the legislative bills that passed so we are working to confirm details on those and also on the federal Medicaid 80% rule.

On the workforce advocacy front, we are super excited to be planning the first two scrubs camps “home care sessions’ this summer. A special thank you to Bonnie Johnson and Colleen Drenckhahn from the Workforce Workgroup for doing the Winona one and an Accra team for covering the Augsburg one.

MHCA has been asked to represent home care on a few state workgroups. We are being recognized as a valuable resource and broadened our advocacy work! I am currently engaged with the following groups:

MHCA is partnering with a research firm, NORC, who has been contracted by DHS for the MN Home and Community-Based Services (HHCBS CBS) Evaluation of the Assessment process for Racial/Ethnic Disparities (HEARD) project. The study aims to better understand people’s experiences when applying for home and community-based waiver services. Most recently, we recruited bilingual individuals who are willing to assist with the interviewing process.
I am on a DHS stakeholder engagement team that is looking at how to increase access to long-term services and supports (LTSS) for Minnesota’s older adult population. This group is discussing big picture ideas for the long-term future. Thank you to Andrea for attending the kick-off meeting while I was on vacation.
DEED received funding for “Follow your Heart Caring Career Campaign,” which will promote direct care careers and asked MHCA to the table in the 11^th hour. While we didn’t influence the launch (today), I have made some updates to required training information and will have a seat at the table, going forward.

Other

We didn’t get a volunteer to facilitate a member meeting retention breakout and I’m on vacation that week. If Melissa doesn’t find a facilitator, we will just have one ‘extra session’ to review the recent Covid announcements.

Andrea and Kristy will join me for a couple of MNHPC meetings this year, a next step in building a stronger relationship.

One of the Leadership Development Committee members left home care and Joelle is filling that slot on the committee.

Get your fans out and embrace summer!

Kind Regards,

Kathy Messerli

Executive Director

Minnesota Home Care Association

1265 Grey Fox Road, Suite 2 | Arden Hills, MN 55112-6929

Direct: 651.635.0038 | Main: 651.635.0607