Buchanan’s Kim Sokoloski and BAYADA’s Government Affairs Director Anita Weinberg have a quick sidebar during the first-ever Champion Awards
BAYADA Home Health Care presented their first-ever Champion awards, marking this year’s BAYADA Day in Harrisburg. This new award recognizes state legislators and regulators who have worked diligently to advocate for increased funding and support for home health care services in the Commonwealth. The first recipients honored by BAYADA were Secretary of Aging Brian Duke, Senator Patricia Vance, and Representative Marguerite Quinn.
At a capitol rotunda news conference, BAYADA Chief Government Affairs Officer Dave Totaro called Secretary Duke one of Pennsylvania’s champions of the aging and a like-minded friend who works toward improving the lives of seniors and their caregivers.
Cited as a loyal friend and supporter of services BAYADA provides children, adults and seniors in Pennsylvania, Representative Marguerite Quinn (R-Bucks) has pledged her ongoing support as BAYADA continues to pursue a successful rate reimbursement increase.
Senator Pat Vance (R-Cumberland) was thanked for being a longtime leading advocate on behalf of home health care and the “go to” person for health issues. She has advocated for increased funding for pediatric shift nursing services and has authored more than 20 laws including several related to supporting & protecting the medically fragile and their caregivers.
A sea of BAYADA red could be seen throughout the capitol all day. It was the seventh year BAYADA held its day in Harrisburg, which has become a day of anticipation and expectation among legislators and their staff. In addition to the Champion Awards, more than 170 BAYADA Home Health Care employees and clients from across Pennsylvania visited over 170 legislative offices to garner support for increases to Medicaid reimbursement for home health care services.
Friends of home health care services participated all day long on Twitter using the hashtag #BAYADAday. Home health care advocates tweeted about their legislative encounters throughout the day where they discussed the need to increase their ability to recruit and retain the caliber of caregivers to provide quality care for medically-fragile citizens. Even legislators joined in:
“Wow—very smart—met with a group of Bayada Nurses who are tweeting their lobbying day as #BayadaDay – great work!” — Representative Mike Schlossberg (D-Lehigh)
“It was nice to see Rep. Jerry Knowles. He looks forward to seeing us every year! #BAYADAday @BayadaHHC” – Adam Krushinskie
Inspiring stuff to hear about our individual stories at #BAYADAday 2014. Thanks to @BAYADAHCC @RepTomMurt @RepMDean for this great event! – Erin Smith
A Sea of Red — 170 Home Health Care Advocates visited a 170 legislative offices during BAYADA’s 7th annual legislative day
Throughout the day, Bayada representatives advocated on behalf of in-home pediatric nursing care, home and community-based services waiver rates for personal care assistance and nursing services, and adult home health nursing and therapy services.
Bethanne Sellers, the mother of one of BAYADA’s clients, spoke about how home health care has improved the quality of life for her daughter, Lilly, who has Muscular Dystrophy, and their family as a whole. She said that home nursing “decreased exponentially” Lilly’s school absences and hospitalizations and, perhaps just as importantly, it has allowed the Sellers family “to be a family.”
“At first, I thought there was no way we would want home health care for Lilly. In hindsight, I question how we ever survived without it,” shared Sellers. She believes all families with medically fragile children have “the right to have home health care services provided to us by the best possible people.”
Founded in 1975 by J. Mark Baiada, BAYADA Home Health Care provides nursing, rehabilitative, therapeutic, hospice, and assistive care services to children, adults, and seniors in the comfort of their homes. Headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, BAYADA employs more than 18,000 nurses, home health aides, therapists, medical social workers, and other home health care professionals who serve their communities in 22 states from more than 280 offices. For more information, visit www.bayada.com or follow on Twitter @BayadaHHC