Senate blocking AHHA proposal that would help New York receive $400 million per year

June 15, Albany, NY — The New York Senate continues to block the creation of Advanced Home Health Aides (AHHAs), a proposal which the Center for Disability Rights (CDR) estimates will bring over $400 million into New York every year. The proposal, contained in SB 5855, will also help disabled people and seniors to live in their own homes rather than be forced into institutions to receive services they need to survive.

“By blocking this proposal, the Senate is preventing New York from receiving more than $1 million per day, every day of the year, in additional Federal funding, for no discernible reason,” said Stephanie Woodward, Director of Advocacy at CDR. “The Senate is also risking the safety of New Yorkers. Out of all adults who are not at the end of their life when they go into a nursing facility, one in five will die in the first six months. If we don’t pass this bill this session, healthy people who go in to a facility today will be dead before we can act on it next year.”

The Disability Community is deeply frustrated by the Senate’s obstruction of the proposal, not only because of the considerable benefits to the state budget and to New Yorkers, but also because the Senate wrote similar language into its budget last year. Senator Kenneth LaValle and Senate Higher Education staff have objected to this year’s AHHA bill, claiming that it does not correctly modify the scope of practice, and that the AHHA proposal does not clearly and specifically describe what the AHHAs will be allowed to do.

It has become difficult to believe that these objections are being made in good faith. The Senate’s own AHHA proposal, in last year’s Health and Mental Hygiene Budget, was two pages long. The AHHA bill under consideration this year is over twice that length, and contains clear and specific details about the scope of practice. This year’s AHHA proposal amends the Nurse Practice Act in nearly the same way as the Senate proposed to amend it last year. CDR has asked for changes that would make the bill acceptable, but the Senate has offered none.

The Senate last year called for a stakeholder workgroup to produce guidance on the AHHA proposal. A workgroup of stakeholders has met multiple times since last year for just that purpose. The guidance describes everything from the qualifications and experience required to become an AHHA, to the training that an AHHA will have to receive, to the supervision and oversight which a nurse will provide. It also includes a matrix of tasks — 61 pages in length — to make clear and explicit what tasks the AHHA may or may not perform. Although the Senate did not participate in the workgroup, it could have done so, or even convened its own workgroup.

The Senate’s AHHA proposal from last year (http://docdro.id/13kd6) can be compared to the current AHHA proposal (http://docdro.id/13kde). If the current proposal does not amend the Nurse Practice Act in the right way, then why did the Senate propose to do it that way last year? If the current proposal is not specific enough, the Senate should look at its own proposal for specifics: it will find none there. The Senate is putting New Yorkers with disabilities into a rigged and unwinnable game simply because Senator LaValle did not choose to participate in the workgroup. New Yorkers deserve better from our elected representatives.

Contact:
Adam Prizio: 518-320-7100