Bills affecting Caregiver (family or unpaid) in New York (2026 session)

Provides that a caregiver may be eligible for assistance for child care under the child care block grant regardless of the hours the parent actually works.

Requires the commissioner of health to establish regional minimum hourly base reimbursement rates for home care aides.

Removes certain restrictions on eligibility for personal and home care services under medicaid.

Provides that the submission of claims for services provided by home care agencies shall be done on forms approved by the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.

Authorizes collaborative programs for community paramedicine services as part of the hospital-home care-physician collaboration program.

Enacts the "fair pay for home care act" relating to minimum wages applicable to home care aides; provides for a minimum wage of 150% of the applicable statewide or regional minimum wage.

Extends wage parity for home care workers in upstate New York.

Places limits on the maximum amount of hours a home care aide may be required to work without voluntarily consenting to such an assignment.

Increases the amount of the credit against taxes for long-term care insurance from twenty to forty percent and from one thousand five hundred dollars to two thousand five hundred dollars.

Establishes the caregiver coordinating commission to review and evaluate statewide planning, development, and implementation of caregiver support services, including respite care, for informal family caregivers caring for those across the lifespan.

Relates to the dissemination of information pertaining to individuals suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia through the NY Connects: Choices for Long Term Care program.

Requires one caregiver for every two children under eighteen months of age in group family day care homes and family day care homes.

Establishes the adult care facility voucher demonstration program for persons with dementia, Alzheimer's diagnosis, or other cognitive impairments to provide a sliding-scale subsidy for adult care facility residents who are at risk of losing nursing home care due to depleted resources and to individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid or supplemental security income, but in need of adult day care services.

Directs the director of the office of the aging to establish a caregiver crisis hotline to provide emotional support resources for informal caregivers of a person in need of assistance.

Relates to informal caregiver training; defines "person in need of assistance"; expands who may serve as an "informal caregiver".

Eliminates the "look-back period" for home care for non-institutionalized Medicaid applicants; repeals a certain provision of law relating thereto.

Establishes a special needs assisted living program to serve residents of certified assisted living residences with neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia or Parkinson's disease, who are experiencing behavior disturbances.

Establishes the home care jobs innovation program and the home care jobs innovation fund to identify, develop and support projects throughout the state designed to increase the number of individuals who become home care workers and to increase the employment retention of individuals who are employed as home care workers; provides for the granting of awards to such projects; makes an appropriation therefor.

Requires a report on individuals who are the primary caregiver for an older adult, including the number of individuals who are primary caregivers for an older adult, the average age of a primary caregiver, the cost to an individual to provide care to an older adult, and the economic value and savings to the state of such individual's services.

Requires contracts with home care service providers to provide sufficient resources to ensure compensation to a qualified workforce providing high quality care; authorizes the commissioner of health to establish a program to provide loans, through the dormitory authority, to home care facilities to finance health care reform efforts.