My Turn: Home health-care law doesn’t do enough

A bill signed by Gov. Doug Ducey aimed to increase transparency in the nonmedical in-home care industry, but it missed the target. The new law delivers far less than it seems to promise.

The law requires companies providing in-home nonmedical caregiving services to provide customers an annual report of basic information about how they operate. These businesses provide workers to support people who need help with activities of daily life such as shopping, cooking, housekeeping, transportation and hygiene. This helps people to continue living at home.

Satisfying the law is easy. The report must include whether the business does background checks before hiring workers, its policies for hiring and firing, what training (if any) its workers receive, and the cost of its services. A business could put its annual report on a postcard, or even a Post-It.

That's all the law does. It doesn't require screening or training, and it doesn't prevent felons from entering the industry, either as company owners or as workers.

It gives the appearance of safety without anything to back it up, because there is almost no provision for enforcement and no mechanism to ensure the report is accurate. Enforcement is triggered only by consumer complaints. Noncompliance is a misdemeanor.

And businesses report only to individual customers. There's no requirement to report to the state, and no online clearinghouse where customers can compare reports from different businesses.

If the postal service can provide instant online tracking for the millions of certified letters it handles every day, Arizona could at least make it easier to find out if a company that places unmonitored workers into the homes of vulnerable clients does background checks.

Why can't we do better?

I think the answer is obvious: Our elected leaders lack the political will to fix things. I won't speculate on motivations, but there is a tremendous amount of legislative foot-dragging on this issue.

And this is hardly the time for delay — some 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day. Many of those folks, and many people of any age who have a disability, do or will need nonmedical support to continue living safely at home.

It's time to professionalize the nonmedical in-home care industry, and weak laws like the one signed April Fools' Day won't do it. Getting started is easier than it might seem, because a powerful state agency is already doing much of the work.

The Department of Health Services licenses hospices, home health agencies that provide skilled in-home therapy and nursing services, and adult care homes and facilities.

But in Arizona and 22 other states, licensing (and its built-in oversight) is not required for nonmedical in-home care companies. All you need is a business license, which has nothing to do with quality of care or qualification of workers. You could run a company from the front seat of your car with workers you recruited off the street.

Granted, the new law is a first step, but it's a baby step. At this rate, maybe our grandchildren will enjoy the protections we all deserve now.

Please contact your legislators with this simple message: Make DHS licensing and oversight of nonmedical in-home care companies a top priority for the next legislative session. Waiting is not an option. People's lives are at stake.

Judy Clinco, a registered nurse and owner of a Tucson home care company, is board chair of AZ Direct Care Alliance.