Call for Action on the Advanced Home Health Aide

Last week, LeadingAge NY, along with 19 other associations and groups, sent a letter to the governor and other key legislative leaders urging them to work together to establish an Advanced Home Health Aide (AHHA) program before the end of the legislative session. As we have previously mentioned ,an AHHA would be allowed, in certain circumstances, to preform some nursing tasks only if trained and supervised by a Registered Nurse (RN). The program would be totally voluntary for all parties involved, this would include the patient, the AHHA and the RN.

As stated in the letter, "in sixteen other states, nurses have safely assigned some of these tasks to aides with improved consistency of care and no harm to consumers." Allowing for an AHHA in our State would provide greater flexibility and reduce the stress for some cargivers who have had to provide some of these tasks when nurses weren't available.

LeadingAge NY will continue to keep you posted on any new developments.

Contact: Cheryl Udell, cudell@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871