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FACT SHEET FOR LIVE-IN CAREGIVERS IN WASHINGTON STATE - June 5, 2007

The Washington State Supreme Court recently ruled that the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) can no longer cut paid hours of personal care services for live-in care providers simply because they live with their disabled client/family member/friend. Now that this DSHS “shared living rule” has been done away with, live-in caregivers will be paid for the SAME number of hours others have been receiving for the SAME level of care needed by other clients with similar needs. This specifically applies to low-income clients in one of the state’s long-term care programs such as Medicaid Personal Care (MPC) or COPES.

It has been determined that the number of hours that were cut by DSHS in the past, because of unfair “shared living rules,” amounted to about 15% of overall hours of care needed by the MPC or COPES long-term care client. Example: If your client/family member/friend that you lived with and took care of was determined by DSHS to need 100 hours of paid care services per month, chances are he or she actually should have received 115 hours of paid care services per month; and as the live-in care provider for that client, you should have been paid for those additional hours of work per month.

A class action lawsuit has now been filed against the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services on behalf of all live-in personal care providers who have suffered lost wages in the past because of “shared living rules.” That is only half of the battle. To win the lawsuit, it is necessary to “prove” that a significant number of people (caregivers and their clients) were adversely affected by loss of paid care services. To prove that argument to the judge, it is necessary to have a large number of individuals sign on to the claim that their hours were unfairly cut and their client/family member/friend that they took care of actually was entitled to more paid services than DSHS had allowed.

In other words, a “class action” requires a substantial number of people to represent the entire class of people who have suffered the loss that they are seeking to be compensated for. If you are qualified to be a class representative in this lawsuit, here is what would and would not be asked of you:

1. You and your client/family member/friend that you care for WOULD NOT be asked to go anywhere in order to be represented in the class action lawsuit. If you wanted to participate directly, however, you probably could.

2. You and your client/family member/friend WOULD NOT be asked to pay any money whatsoever in order to be represented in the class action. The law firm handling this case will receive payment for their legal fees directly from the state if they win the case. If they do not win the case, they will not be paid. The risk is entirely theirs.

3. You WOULD be asked to provide basic facts to prove that you are the trained and qualified live-in care provider of a disabled person who lives at home (his/hers/yours) and receives paid care services from you in one of the state’s long-term care programs such as Medicaid Personal Care (MPC) or COPES.

4. You WOULD be asked to “tell your story” to a representative from the law firm that is handling the class action suit. This would be done over the phone. The kinds of questions you would be asked are to show the following:

a. Your client/family member/friend needs personal care services that the state has refused to pay for in the past because of “shared living” rules.

b. Perhaps you used to be paid for those services before 2003, when the “shared living” rule was imposed on live-in caregivers. Perhaps your client’s social worker/case manager even told you that your hours were cut because of “shared living rules.”

c. You may have continued to provide all needed services for your client/family member/friend even in the absence of compensation.

d. You wish to receive fair compensation for all of the services that your client’s assessment determined were needed in the past as well as all of those that are determined to be needed in the future.

5. You WOULD be asked to sign an agreement with the law firm so that you can be represented in the class action lawsuit. The permission of your client/family member/friend would also be required unless you could sign on his/her behalf as the legal guardian or power of attorney.

If you live and work in Washington State and the above seems to apply to you, I will ask the law firm that is handling this class action lawsuit to speak with you directly. I am helping with this project because I believe in it so strongly. I am also a live-in caregiver and I fully understand the physical and financial challenges we deal with every day. My daughter and I welcome any other members of our “live-in caregiver class” to the class action lawsuit. As I said before, our stories need to be told and only we can tell them.

Here is our chance to win back some of what we have lost, so let’s be winners in this together. Please contact me directly at the email address below in order to exchange the kind of personal and private information that is required.

I am Judy L. Alberts at Jlalberts03@comcast.net