I am a home care provider in New Jersey, and I’m writing to urge you to oppose the proposed Medicaid reassessment fee. This policy doesn’t reflect how home care actually works, and it will make it harder for us to care for patients.
In home care, many workers are part-time or work for more than one agency. For example, a home health aide might work 20 hours a week for two different agencies to make a full schedule. Under the fee proposal, both agencies could be penalized because that one worker is enrolled in Medicaid. That means multiple employers would be charged for the same person, which is inequitably harmful to the home care system.
Additionally, home care agencies like mine already offer health insurance, but we cannot control whether employees qualify for Medicaid, or whether they choose Medicaid over our employer coverage. Many workers have legitimate reasons to decline employer plans—because of cost, family needs, or better access to providers through Medicaid. These are personal decisions, not employer decisions. This policy, however, assumes employers are doing something wrong.
We are already doing everything we can to recruit and retain workers in the middle of a serious workforce shortage in nurses and aides. Adding new financial penalties will only make that harder. It could further force agencies to cut hours, stop hiring, or limit the number of patients we can serve. This moves us in the wrong direction at a time when more New Jersey residents need care at home.
Please reconsider this proposal and work with home care providers on solutions that actually strengthen the workforce and improve access to care.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
