FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Contacts: Tara Ober, 610-442-1273, tober@phca.org | Emily Dong, 267-761-1502, emily.dong@seiuhcpa.org
Pennsylvania Health Care Association (PHCA) and SEIU Healthcare PA Announce New Labor-Industry Partnership
Created to solve dire workforce challenges in nursing homes, the historic new partnership will jointly advocate for accountable funding and investment in family-sustaining nursing home jobs.
Harrisburg, PA – This morning, the Pennsylvania Health Care Association (PHCA), the commonwealth’s leading advocacy association for hundreds of long-term care providers, and SEIU Healthcare PA, the state’s largest healthcare workers’ union representing nearly 9,000 nursing home workers, announced a new labor-industry partnership to solve the dire healthcare workforce challenges impacting residents across the state.
The first of its kind in Pennsylvania, this new partnership will tackle improving resident care and jobs in nursing homes. The two organizations shared their joint plan to advocate for accountable funding, calling for a critical update to the Budget Adjustment Factor (BAF), untouched for two decades, by setting a stable 0.9 reimbursement floor. Introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives yesterday (HB1310), this legislation would infuse the system with approximately $140 million new dollars for long-term care, but perhaps more importantly: it would provide sustainability and predictability for providers, workers, and residents throughout the commonwealth.
“The Pennsylvania Health Care Association and SEIU Healthcare PA have formed a strategic partnership aimed at advocating together, bargaining together, growing together, and preserving the long-term care continuum in Pennsylvania together,” said Zach Shamberg, President and CEO of PHCA. “Our partnership is built on the foundation of collective advocacy, and addressing the challenges plaguing our sector, including the Budget Adjustment Factor. Now is the time for action on this outdated funding mechanism. What may have worked in 2006 certainly won’t work today – and that’s why we’re proud to team up on behalf of long-term providers, workers, and residents to get this done.”
Currently, the commonwealth is home to the 5th highest population of older adults in the U.S., but an estimated 2,000 people per day wait for a nursing home bed. Pennsylvania’s nursing home resident population is expected to double by 2035. Ranked one of the most dangerous jobs in 2020, many workers have left the bedside for better-paying and less-stressful jobs.
“We don’t have the skilled, trained caregivers for residents now or in the future,” said Tina Siegel, a licensed practical nurse for 40 years and SEIU Healthcare PA union member from Clarion county. “My facility’s long-term staff are retiring like me or burning out. We hire new staff, but they don’t stay. This is an emotionally and physically demanding job, and people leave to make more money down the street at Walmart and McDonald’s. We need to do more if we’re going to have skilled caregivers for double the census in 2035, and we need to do it together through partnerships like this.”
Since 2021, Pennsylvania has lost 30 nursing homes. At $256 per resident per day, Pennsylvania’s Medicaid reimbursement rate trails all of its neighboring states, including Maryland’s $375 per day, New Jersey’s $275 per day, and New York’s $299 per day. As Pennsylvania’s aging population explodes–and the nursing home resident population grows with higher acuity–we must invest in recruiting, retaining, and training the skilled workforce.
“This partnership between PHCA, responsible operators, and union workers who advocate for their residents every day is the type of collaboration needed to raise standards of care, and we’re looking forward to growing the partnership,” said Matthew Yarnell, President of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and former certified nursing assistant. “This is a time to continue the reforms, funding increases, and staffing standards we created out of the pandemic, not stop. Every Pennsylvanian deserves safe, dignified care in the setting of their choosing. The only way to do that is by more deeply investing in making jobs in nursing homes some of the best jobs in the community: union jobs with competitive wages and benefits.”
As part of the partnership, a few responsible operators of Pennsylvania nursing homes will join advocacy for increased funding. These operators have also made a commitment to approach labor-management relationships, including contract negotiations, with the common interest of raising care and job standards in the Commonwealth.
Photo and video documentation of the press conference is available HERE.
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PHCA stands as the leading advocacy association in the commonwealth, representing the interests of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents and the dedicated providers who care for them. Our core mission is to elevate, educate, and advocate on behalf of these residents, their caregivers, and our network of over 450 long-term care providers. At PHCA, we are committed to sustaining a robust and high-quality long-term care continuum across Pennsylvania and are dedicated to advancing the work of our members, leveraging our extensive industry knowledge to ensure their long-term success in an evolving healthcare landscape. Learn more at phca.org.
SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania is the state’s largest and fastest-growing union of nurses and healthcare workers, uniting tens of thousands of professional and technical employees, direct care workers, and service employees in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home- and community-based services, and state facilities across the Commonwealth. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania members are committed to improving the lives of health care workers and ensuring quality care and healthy communities for all Pennsylvanians.
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