"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Public Act 12-33 is not the first time that our state government has forced the SEIU on a private DDS contractor.
Back in 2006, a group of state legislators intervened in a union election at a private nonprofit organization that serves individuals who live with intellectual disabilities.
(Read the story here:
http://articles.courant.com/2006-01-15/news/0601150311_1_union-representation-new-union-legislators)
HARC, Inc. was founded in 1951 by families of children with intellectual disability when the only help available to families from the state was placement in one of the large state institutions at Mansfield or Southbury. Since then, HARC and other similarly founded private family non-profits have become the mainstay of state-funded assistance to individuals who live with intellectual disabilities - and the legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee has revealed that these private provider agencies save the public more than 50% of the cost of state facilities.
(You can read the PRI report at
http://www.cga.ct.gov/pri/docs/2011/Committee_Approved_Dual_Provider_Final_Committee_Report.PDF)
Now, six years since the SEIU became the representative of the HARC employees, are the reimbursement rates for HARC any higher? No. In fact, the state is establishing a new uniform rate system for all DDS services in accordance with federal Medicaid requirements.
(You can read about the new uniform reimbursement rates at
http://www.ct.gov/dds/lib/dds/operations_center/rate/lac_final_report.pdf)
As a private provider of state-funded services, the reimbrsement rates for HARC (and therefore the wages paid to HARC workers) are determined by the State Department of Developmental Services in accordance with the budget appropriated by the Connecticut General Assembly - and the rates for HARC will be the same as to any private provider regardless of the presence of the union.
Is history repeating in the recent passage of Public Act 12-33? Can we really expect an increase in the funding for self-directed supports at DDS - or, like the private provider agencies, will we live with the same flat funding from the state while we pay a new fee to the union?
This web page is brought to you by Raising Voices for Action, Inc. http://raisingvoicesforaction.weebly.com
Public Act 12-33 is not the first time that our state government has forced the SEIU on a private DDS contractor.
Back in 2006, a group of state legislators intervened in a union election at a private nonprofit organization that serves individuals who live with intellectual disabilities.
(Read the story here:
http://articles.courant.com/2006-01-15/news/0601150311_1_union-representation-new-union-legislators)
HARC, Inc. was founded in 1951 by families of children with intellectual disability when the only help available to families from the state was placement in one of the large state institutions at Mansfield or Southbury. Since then, HARC and other similarly founded private family non-profits have become the mainstay of state-funded assistance to individuals who live with intellectual disabilities - and the legislative Program Review and Investigations Committee has revealed that these private provider agencies save the public more than 50% of the cost of state facilities.
(You can read the PRI report at
http://www.cga.ct.gov/pri/docs/2011/Committee_Approved_Dual_Provider_Final_Committee_Report.PDF)
Now, six years since the SEIU became the representative of the HARC employees, are the reimbursement rates for HARC any higher? No. In fact, the state is establishing a new uniform rate system for all DDS services in accordance with federal Medicaid requirements.
(You can read about the new uniform reimbursement rates at
http://www.ct.gov/dds/lib/dds/operations_center/rate/lac_final_report.pdf)
As a private provider of state-funded services, the reimbrsement rates for HARC (and therefore the wages paid to HARC workers) are determined by the State Department of Developmental Services in accordance with the budget appropriated by the Connecticut General Assembly - and the rates for HARC will be the same as to any private provider regardless of the presence of the union.
Is history repeating in the recent passage of Public Act 12-33? Can we really expect an increase in the funding for self-directed supports at DDS - or, like the private provider agencies, will we live with the same flat funding from the state while we pay a new fee to the union?
This web page is brought to you by Raising Voices for Action, Inc. http://raisingvoicesforaction.weebly.com