Executive Order  No. 421: Comprehensive assessment of long-term care

WHEREAS, long-term care is a key component in the continuum of health care services offered by providers in the Commonwealth;

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth is committed to fostering the growth and development of a continuum of care, including community-based alternative long-term care models;

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth also is committed to ensuring access to institutional long-term care for residents who need and desire such care;

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth also is committed to improving access to community-based care options for elders who are able and prefer to remain in the community;

WHEREAS, concerns have been raised about the high cost of institutional long- term care and the financial stability of many long-term care providers in the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the House and Senate Minority Leaders have collectively established a statewide task force to conduct a thorough analysis of the Massachusetts health care industry, including long-term care, over the next two years;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Argeo Paul Cellucci, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Supreme Executive Magistrate, do hereby order as follows:

The Secretaries of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (the "Secretaries") and the Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (the "Director") are hereby directed to conduct a comprehensive assessment of long-term care in the Commonwealth. This comprehensive assessment is intended to enhance the work of the statewide health care task force (the "Task Force") in studying long-term care.

The assessment shall include, but not be limited to, a projection of the Commonwealth's long term care needs over the next five years and an examination of access to long-term care, financing for long-term care services and the quality of long- term care provided in a variety of settings.

The Secretaries and the Director are further directed to develop a comprehensive plan and set of recommendations for developing and preserving adequate long-term care capacity in the Commonwealth for the next five years. The plan and recommendations shall include, but not be limited to, the following issues:

• Maximizing the cost-effective use of existing resources and enhancing community options to support the ability of the Commonwealth to serve residents in need of long-term care in the most appropriate setting; 
• Researching new methods of assessing quality of care in long-term care settings and ways to introduce incentives for long-term care providers to demonstrate quality improvement;
• Establishing priorities for expenditures on long-term care, given the goals of responding to consumer preferences, coordinating acute and long-term care services and encouraging efficiency; and
• Analyzing wage inflation in other industries and how it impacts labor shortages and quality of care in the long-term care industry, and developing recommendations to expand career development opportunities for entry-level workers to ensure an adequate supply and increased retention of well-trained direct care workers.

In developing said comprehensive plan, the Secretaries and the Director are further directed to consult with members of the Task Force, as well as representatives of long-term care providers, elder advocates, consumers of long-term care services and employee benefits representatives.

The Secretaries and the Director are directed to present their comprehensive plan to the Governor and Lieutenant Governor and to the Chairs of the Task Force no later than six months after the signing of this Executive Order.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston this 10th day of May in the year two thousand.

Argeo Paul Cellucci

Governor

William Francis Galvin

Secretary of the Commonwealth