By Edward Mason
Staff writer
June 22, 2008 05:45 am BOSTON — The agencies that care for those who can't care for themselves say they're at the breaking point and want the state to overhaul the way they are paid. Gary Blumenthal, executive director of the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers, said the way caregivers and their companies are paid now doesn't make sense. "It's a crazy quilt system unlike anywhere in the country," he said. Currently what the state pays depends on the year the nonprofit providing the services entered into a contract. Those contracts are renewed annually at the original rate and have not been adjusted for inflation since 1987, when Michael Dukakis was governor. The current system is squeezing human service providers like Art Brady, executive director of American Training Inc. in Lawrence. His business contracts with the Department of Mental Retardation to train people with developmental disabilities. The training can be as complicated as counseling for a new job, or as simple as teaching personal grooming. Brady said the last time the state adjusted rates for inflation, gas was 95 cents a gallon. Now it sells for more than $4 a gallon. As his costs go up, it leaves him with less money to pay his staff. "At American Training, I'm dealing with having to pay the bills," he said. "Whatever is left is what I can pay my staff. Instead of being my priority, they're at the bottom of the pyramid." While the state doesn't adjust what it pays for inflation, it does pay more for services in newer contracts than older ones. Brady said he makes do the way other service providers manage — he takes on newer, better paying contracts to subsidize his earlier ones. A bill in the Statehouse, backed by Rep. Barbara L'Italien and Sen. Susan Tucker, both Andover Democrats, would allow human service providers to bid on contracts based on the actual cost of doing the service. It also would establish a rate-setting commission to review rates annually. The situation is so severe, Blumenthal said, that his members may turn to the courts if the Legislature doesn't act. "There's a growing sense something has to be done," he said. "Litigation may be the next step. We don't want to see that happen." There are 185,000 human service workers in Massachusetts. A University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute study found that human service workers earn less than if they had taken comparable jobs elsewhere in the health care industry. The median pay is about $9,000 less than if they'd taken a job elsewhere. Those who work for state facilities earn nearly $15,000 less. Brady, whose agency employs 330 people across the region, said many of his caregivers could earn more working at McDonald's, and that some are eligible for food stamps. That concerns Nancy Salyers, a Newburyport resident whose son is developmentally disabled. Christopher, 40, needs help standing, eating, bathing, even dressing, and he gets it from the staff at the residential home operated by American Training at 19 Pine Hill Road in Newburyport. Salyers is worried that the high turnover in the human services industry will hurt her son. "He develops relationships, with the staff, with the community," she said. "Without consistent staff, he doesn't know who's going to take care of him today and tomorrow." Gov. Deval Patrick's administration says it supports the goals of bill. Realistically, it needs to be passed by July 31, the end of the Legislature's formal session, to become law. The bill has been in the Senate's Ways and Means Committee since April. Its chairman, Sen. Steven Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, could not be reached for comment.
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