The article that appears in The Lund Report saying that Albertina has not shared the increased rates from the Department of Human Services with its staff members is untrue, according to CEO Chris Krenk. That statement was attributed to Ralph Groener, the longtime AFSCME lobbyist, who complained about the abysmal wages paid by nonprofit agencies who assist people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Albertina Kerr has consistently prioritized raising the wages of direct care staff since 2009, which was the last time the Legislature gave a cost of living adjustment to I/DD providers who contract with DHS. Krenk told The Lund Report.
In October 2010, the legislature arbitrarily cut contract providers’ reimbursement rates by 6 percent, he added. “In spite of that we continued to increase wages (we certainly did not reduce wages by 6 percent).
In 2013, the Legislature restored the cut (which with inflation did not return us to the funding level of 2010, i.e., it was the equivalent of less than a 4 percent increase). “We continued on our path of wage increases,” Krenk said. “We intend to continue to increase direct care wages annually for the foreseeable future and hope that the 2016 or 2017 legislative sessions will see their way to do more than they did this session to increase direct support professional wages. It should also be noted that Albertina Kerr has historically and continues to pay 100 percent of the cost of employee health insurance and continues to retain other employee benefits at the same levels as provided in 2009.
“We are in strong agreement with Mr. Groener that wages for direct support professionals who work in I/DD organizations under contract with DHS should be increased significantly. In fact, we worked hard with other sister organizations to have the Legislature appropriate $38.6 million this session which would have raised the average wage of our direct support professionals from $10.80/hr. to $13.75/hr., but we were unsuccessful in getting it included in SB 5507.”
Albertina Kerr gave wage increases to its direct care employees in the following amounts during the period 2010-2014: 4 percent in July 2010, 3.5 percent in October 2011, 2.25 percent in April 2013, 2.75 percent in October 2013, and 2.75 percent in October 2014 – a compounded cumulative increase of 16.2 percent. This amount is 6 percent more than the amount allocated by the legislature to provider rate increases during that period of time.
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
