On March 28, 2023 the state of California began issuing $1 billion in one-time retention payments to healthcare workers. The payments are a result of a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.    
    Eligible requirements: full-time, non-physician workers may receive up to a maximum state payment of $1,500, part-time non-physician workers may receive up to a maximum state payment of $1,250, and eligible physicians will receive $1,000.
   This will be a one-time payment of up to $1,500 for workers at hospitals, nursing homes/SNFs, and medical groups that are affiliated with a hospital system (like Kaiser Permanente and the Dignity Health Foundation). Payment were expect to reach workers sometime in early 2023.  Unfortunately, Home Health and Hospice worker RN, MSW, HHA were not eligible for the retention bonus, even if they met all requirements. Below is a letter sent to governor Newsom and SEIU-UHW (service employees international union-united healthcare worker). We want answers as to why we were excluded, and we want Governor Newsom, and SEIU-UHW to make this right.

 

Dear Governor Newsom, SEIU-UHW, 
       
    I am writing you this letter on behalf of myself and all the Home Health and Hospice workers to try and get some understanding in regards to the retention bonus for health care workers and why certain hospital employees who worked full-time before during and after Covid were not eligible to receive any or full bonus amount.

      I have been employed with Kaiser for over 12 years. I work in Home Health Hospice. I am a certified Home Health Aide, and even though I work Monday through Friday, 830am-5pm for the last 12  plus years, I was not eligible for the retention bonus just like many of my colleagues. In the past 12 years my job at Kaiser is to go from home to home providing quality care under Kaiser Permanente for hospice patients. I work under the direct supervision of my nurse case managers, my nurse manager, and a physician, This is also true during Covid and currently. For my entire career here at Kaiser, I have been told that the home or facility where the patient resides is the extension of the hospital and any rules, policies or guidelines that apply in the hospital are to be followed wherever the patient may reside. We are an extension of the hospital, we are caring for loved ones who wish to spend their last days in the comfort of their home amongst family and friends. We make it possible for patients to transition with dignity and respect. 

    Throughout the state of California many healthcare workers were able to work remotely but this was not the case for home health and hospice workers because the field is our facility. During Covid, Home Health and Hospice staff were required to continue to visiting patients in skilled nursing facilities as well as RCFE’s, board and care homes and private homes of patients. You should also know that while Home health and Hospice workers are in the field, they are out in the field alone with little to no physical support from other staff members. Many of these places we went to had patients, people and workers that were positive for Covid. Also, during home visits, unlike hospitals settings, these home are not routinely disinfected per hospital guidelines; they’re for increasing our exposure rate. We were exposed day in and day out since day one and still to this day. We did not get a break and we did not get to work from the safety and comfort of our homes. We were in fact on the front line, putting our lives and our families lives at risk every day.

    Why would exclude so many valuable Hospice and Home Health workers be excluded from the retention bonus? Is it because you truly don’t understand what it is that we do? Did you not know that we were out there every day risking our lives ? Do our lives not matter as much is our colleagues inside the hospital?  Did you not realize that we were not working at home and that we are seeing Kaiser patients and providing them with care? Did you not understand the risks that was involved then and still today or is it because you don’t care?   

    Please help me to understand why hundreds of Home health and Hospice workers were not eligible for this retention bonus. Please help me understand why for months we were told we would be getting this small monetary compensation and just days before we received a letter saying that we did not qualify!!!

    And you wonder why so many health care workers are leaving the industry. I mean, if grocery store workers got hazard pay and bonuses, Why are we not valued as the same?

    Instead, you penalize us for taking care of patients who were admitted to Home health or Hospice to transition or have to be confined to their home or facility due to medical issues. 

    We are skilled and highly trained in our field of expertise/work. We are required to have hours of training every year you keep working in the field. We are the link between the hospital and patient’s place of residence that keep them from having to come back and forth to the hospital for care!!!

    I don’t see how you all do not see the value in that and us. It is extremely sad and disrespectful.

   We want to know, what are you going to do about it?