The Maine Essential Care & Support Workforce Enhancement Act, submitted by Speaker Fecteau to the Revisor’s Office on January 9th, includes six (6) key provisions that will act together to ensure every person in Maine entitled to care or support services is receiving them consistently and predictably.
This bill is the result of years of stakeholder engagement through Maine’s Essential Care & Support Workforce Partnership and we are thrilled that Speaker Ryan Fecteau understands the importance of each piece of this bill to the health of Maine’s people and the economy.
Each of the Partnership’s working groups crafted a piece of this bill. While the bill’s language is not yet set, you can read the groups’ recommendations that gave rise to the following provisions:
- Part 1, from the Wages & Benefits Working Group, raises the labor-portion of the MaineCare reimbursement rate for employers of Essential Care & Support Workers to 140% of minimum wage and sets a floor of 125% of minimum wage for any employee. Read the recommendation here.
- Part 2, from the Utilizing Technology to Bridge the Care Gap Working Group, requires the State to lead a stakeholder process to produce an “Innovations in Care & Support Technology Plan” by October 2026. Read the recommendation here.
- Part 3, from the Improving the Credentialing & Training of the Essential Care & Support Workforce Working Group, requires the State to establish a structure to ensure stakeholder input into the cohesive overhaul of the credentialing and training system in Maine to create a Universal, Standard, Core Curriculum for all essential support workers with stacked additional skill and proficiency endorsements. Read the recommendation here.
The bill also includes two recommendations from the legislatively-appointed Essential Support Workforce Advisory Committee:
- Part 4: Expand the membership of the committee to ensure all stakeholders are represented;
- Part 5: Gives policy makers important data upon which to make informed decisions by directing the Maine Health Data Organization (MHDO) to deliver a report to the Health & Human Services Committee by January 15, 2026 outlining available data, data gaps, and the estimated cost of creating and implementing a uniform data collection and reporting system on Maine’s “care gap.” The Advisory Committee’s charge is to report annually on how well the State’s efforts to reduce the “care gap” are working, yet we don’t have the data necessary to measure this “care gap.”
And finally, Part 6, from the Partnership’s Leadership Team and Advisory Council, addresses another gap in data. The MaineCare budget starts with the previous year’s expenditures. We know that at least 23,500 hours of approved care each week go unfilled; therefore, the cost of providing those services are not part of the previous year’s expenditures. As we work to ensure everyone who qualifies for care gets that care, we need to budget for all of the authorized services, not just the ones provided.
This provision requires the State to study the total biennial cost to the state for providing all currently approved MaineCare and state funded services for older people, people with physical and intellectual disabilities, and people with behavioral health challenges who are entitled to receive care and support, either at home or in residential settings, through MaineCare or state funded programs. It also requires the State to forecast anticipated future costs for these services based on Maine’s population demographics and anticipated increased demand for services.
Future blog posts will dive deeply into each portion of this “omnibus” bill.