HB 1777.E - DIGEST

(DIGEST AS ENACTED)

Finds that the voters of Washington state expressed their strong support for home-based long-term care services through their overwhelming approval of Initiative Measure No. 775 in 2001. With passage of the initiative, the state has been directed to increase the quality of state-funded long-term care services provided to elderly and disabled persons in their own homes through recruitment and training of in-home individual providers, referral of qualified individual providers to seniors and persons with disabilities seeking a provider, and stabilization of the individual provider work force.

Finds that the quality of care our elders and people with disabilities receive is highly dependent upon the quality and stability of the individual provider work force, and that the demand for the services of these providers will increase as our population ages.

Declares an intent to stabilize the state-funded individual provider work force by providing funding to implement the collective bargaining agreement between the home care quality authority and the exclusive bargaining representative of individual providers. The agreement reflects the value and importance of the work done by individual providers to support the needs of elders and people with disabilities in Washington state.

Makes appropriations to carry out the purposes of the act.