State finds nursing home salary fiasco

PATRICK CONDON, THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- Last year, the Legislature allocated $4 million for raises to the lowest-paid nursing home caregivers.

But much of that money is not being spent for its intended purpose, a state Department of Social and Health Services survey shows.

Seventy-nine nursing homes statewide responded to the survey, which was issued as a report to the Legislature.

Of that group, 76 percent reported using the funding to pay for salary increases to licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and others, rather than the intended group, the lower-paid nurses aides.

Legislators who pushed to include the $4 million in last year's state budget argued that the sole purpose of the money was for salary increases to nursing home workers long beset by low wages.

"It was absolutely my intention that the money go to workers who needed money," said Rep. Tom Campbell of Spanaway, the ranking Republican on the House Health Care Committee. "If that's not the case, there are going to have to be people who answer for that."

Even more critical of the report's finding are officials at the Service Employees International Union, which represents health care workers.

The union said that even less of the money went where it was most intended -- to nurses aides, who generally are the lowest-paid employees at nursing homes.

Union officials said that less than 10 percent of survey respondents said they used the new funds solely to raise wages for nursing assistants.

That's despite language in the budget directing the money be used to "increase hourly wages an average of 50 cents ... for home-care workers, nurses aides and residential care staff currently earning less than $10 per hour."

Most nurses aides earn about $8 to $10 an hour. Home-care workers, who are paid directly by DSHS, did receive 50-cent-an-hour raises this year.

"Clearly the Legislature's intent was for the money to go there," said Adam Glickman, spokesman for the union. "The nursing-home lobbyists are begging for more money, crying about how poorly paid their workers are, and then they turn around and don't use the money how they were supposed to."

Mike Neeld, the executive director of the Washington Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes, said all the money went into the direct care of patients.

Nursing homes have had trouble keeping up with the rising costs of health care and much of the $4 million was used to pay off expenses that had already been incurred, Neeld said.

"It was a real breakthrough that the Legislature recognized the problem last year," Neeld said. "But it was not nearly enough and we need to get more money into the system. That's the only way to fix it."

The union found it telling that the 79 nursing homes that responded make up 31 percent of all nursing homes statewide, Glickman said.

"We'd have to assume that nursing homes that failed to respond had something to hide," Glickman said. "They're even more likely to have not used the funds in the way they were prescribed."

The survey results will be a topic of discussion when the Health Care Committee meets today, Campbell said.

"These people are living on McDonald's wages. They can't survive," Campbell said.

"We were trying to fix it."

Patrick Condon covers state government for The Olympian. Contact him at 360-753-1688 or at condonpatrick@hotmail.com.

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