. My question for the board: should MHCA continue to fly under the radar as best we can or should we ask members to communicate the need for legislators to work collaboratively with providers as they seek a solution.

 

I could go either way, I doubt there is harm in either.  I am leaning more toward continue under radar, I don’t want my legislators to associate me with properties because it is hard work to get them to understand what home care is. 

 

Have a safe weekend all!

AJ

 

 

Advocacy:

The legislators were back in session as of Monday. Before the break, we were able to draft a bill to fill the gap left when the Governor didn’t include EVV in his supplemental budget, as Kevin shared at the board meeting. It didn’t make the committee deadline so we are hoping it can be dropped into another bill (possibly the Omnibus Bill). The Start of Care bill has progressed as we hoped……educating legislators on the issue and hopefully setting us up for success next year. Our 3^rd priority issue, the Sexual Offender bill passed through the House and we are hoping it can be added as an amendment to another bill in the Senate. So, at this point, all of the bills are ‘alive.’

 

The Elder Abuse issue continues to be a primary focus. There are three sets of bills: Governor/AARP bill, the LTC Imperative and Rep Kiel’s bill and Senate Housley’s bill. Senator Housley says she tried to blend the other two. A small group of members helped me do a review of these three bills and shared areas of concern with Kevin so he and Anni can watch for those specifics. Thank you to Sue Morgan, Kim Olson and Lores Vlaminck for input on this. A coalition of advocates have launched a public relations campaign to pressure legislators to make changes in the bills that are moving forward to address elder abuse and I have heard that a new licensure for Assisted Living may become a reality sooner than we expected. My question for the board: should MHCA continue to fly under the radar as best we can or should we ask members to communicate the need for legislators to work collaboratively with providers as they seek a solution.

 

Membership:

The grace period for paying membership ended March 31 and MHCA discontinued membership for 24 agencies; 13 had proactively notified us, with 7 of them closing. Based on our past experience, we expect that some will renew – they are chronic late payers. As a comparison with last year, in April 2017 we discontinued membership for 28 agencies and 5 of those renewed. The new dues structure appears to have accomplished the goal of better aligning with agency size and meeting revenue goals. Although we are down 15 members from last year (due to merging multiple sites into one organization/member), the revenue has increased and we believe we will meet the 2018 goal.

 

Operations:
We have increased promotions for nominations and it’s been effective for both board members and the Professional of the Year award! We currently have 5 new board candidate applications and 6 nominees for the award – the most we’ve seen since in recent history! I attribute this partially to our increased membership engagement.

 

The LeadingAge and MHCA joint Executive Committee meeting will not occur until late May so we won’t have a vote on the integration at our May board meeting. The LeadingAge board will discuss this at their board meeting tomorrow (Gayle re-arranged the agenda to ensure this discussion takes places before the crazy April weather has people scrambling to leave early!) I encourage you to contact Jay or myself with any additional thoughts, ideas and/or concerns that you have as you ponder this potential integration. I want to ensure the board believes that this is best for our members. Also, please let us know if a change in the AL licensure impacts your perspective on this.

 

Stay safe in the upcoming snowstorm and……

 

 

Kathy Messerli

Executive Director | Minnesota HomeCare Association

 

2550 University Ave. W.,  Ste. 350 S | St. Paul, MN 55114-1900

Direct: 651.635.0038 | Main: 651.635.0607

Toll-free: 866.607.0607 | Fax: 651.635.0043

www.mnhomecare.org | kmesserli@mnhomecare.org

 

Mission: MHCA represents and supports Minnesota home care providers committed to high quality home care services.

 

Vision: MHCA will shape the home care landscape to improve and sustain quality home care services.