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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 3, 2019 03:55 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Daylin Leach |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Nursing Facility Accountability Act |
| Soon I will reintroduce legislation to ensure that nursing facilities treat their workers fairly. Many nursing facility workers’ wages fall well below a living wage. This in turn requires them to rely on public assistance programs. Certainly, no working Pennsylvanian should make so little that they need to supplement their income with state assistance programs, but this should be especially true of the nurses caring for the elderly and disabled in our Commonwealth. It should be noted that Nursing Facilities derive about 70% of their revenue from Medicaid and Medicare. These facilities have a duty to make sure their employees do not also have to enroll in those same public assistance programs. This legislation would establish the Living Wage Certification Program to encourage facilities to provide $15 per hour base wages to all of their employees, whether directly employed or subcontracted. It would also penalize those facilities that force their employees to receive healthcare coverage through medical assistance or other publicly funded programs through the payment of a Nursing Facility Employer Responsibility Penalty. This will help recover some of the costs of providing health insurance that nursing facilities are currently shifting to the state. This bill was known as Senate Bill 236 during the 2017-2018 session. It was cosponsored by Senators Costa and Schwank. Please join me in supporting this important legislation. If you have questions about this legislation, please don’t hesitate to contact me. |
Introduced as SB186