Editors’ Note: This week, CT Mirror is publishing our Best of 2024 series. This story, originally published on May 7, 2024, was chosen because it showed impact. In response to CT Mirror’s early 2023 four-part series on elder care the CT House approved an overhaul to aspects of the elder care system that spring. In 2024 the legislature adopted additional reform measures, including requiring more oversight of home care workers, creating a swifter process for accessing Medicaid and launching a registry to make it easier for consumers to find caregivers. Once again, these measures closely tracked the deficiencies in the elder care system that we identified in our series. A broad bill that makes changes in Connecticut’s elder care sector, including requiring more oversight of home care workers, creating a swifter process for accessing Medicaid and launching a registry to make it easier for consumers to find caregivers, won final approval Tuesday in the Senate. Senators voted unanimously in favor of the measure, which now heads to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for a signature. The legislation follows reporting by The Connecticut Mirror that exposed gaps in Connecticut’s elder care system — both in nursing homes and home care — and shined a light on worsening conditions in many nursing homes. The CT Mirror’s reporting highlighted the lack of oversight across the home care industry, showed how the absence of a presumptive eligibility program limits options for people who need care quickly but can’t afford to pay out of pocket, and revealed the lack of an updated home care worker registry. People on the state’s Medicaid program seeking care at home receive a binder with printed pages that in many cases contained outdated employee information. [RELATED: House passes broad bill overhauling aspects of elder care sector] The CT Mirror also reviewed more than 75 complaints against homemaker companion agencies alleging theft, neglect and deceptive advertising. While many cases resulted in fines or an employee being fired, the state acknowledged it had never denied an agency a registration or revoked a registration following an investigation. The bill makes several reforms to Connecticut’s sprawling home care industry, including creating an online registry of employees, requiring home care workers to wear badges with their name and picture, and creating a presumptive eligibility program for people who need to access Medicaid quickly and want care at home. “For too many years, I’ve come to this spot and advocated for our seniors and spoke on their behalf about how to make aging in place more accessible, more dignified; to just give people the latitude and independence they’ve been asking for,” said Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford. “On the whole, this is a major step forward. “This is just so critical. People work their entire life. They save, and they believe that everything’s going to turn out OK. Then aging comes in … and you’re like, ‘Oh my word.’ And it’s that chronic care continuum that we don’t really think about.” Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, the state Department of Social Services must develop and maintain an online home care provider registry to help consumers find workers who have the correct language proficiency and skills. Employees who were subject to domestic violence or sexual assault, or who have a restraining order out against someone, would be allowed to seek an exemption. The registry would support recruitment and retention of home care workers by helping them stay enrolled as home and community-based Medicaid service providers, attracting new candidates through job advertisements and fairs, and connecting providers with training and opportunities for professional development. Proponents of the measure say the registry will also bolster state oversight of home care providers by facilitating background checks, verifying provider qualifications, identifying special skills, and increasing communication in the event of an emergency, the bill’s authors have noted. It mandates that workers at home health, home aide and hospice care agencies wear a badge with their name and photograph during each client visit. It also requires the state to study how it can expand worker fingerprinting locations across Connecticut to provide better access for people who require background checks prior to getting hired or obtaining a license. Lawmakers said there currently are 12 fingerprinting locations, with several “deserts” in which the nearest location is far away. The proposal would also help people get quicker access to Medicaid so they can receive care at home. Legislators recommended creating a presumptive eligibility program, in which case managers and social workers use screening tools and financial information to swiftly determine if a person qualifies for Medicaid and to offer services. But there is risk involved. If a person ultimately is found ineligible for Medicaid, the financial burden of the services falls on the state or is shared with home care providers. Connecticut would use one-time funds through the American Rescue Plan Act to set up the program. The bill allows the state to discontinue it after two years if the effort is found to not be cost effective. “Aging in place is a concept we talk a lot about, but it takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of collaboration, and ultimately, it takes a lot of adjustments,” said Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield. “This bill is a start to making that kind of impact, to putting practices in place.” Some provisions that were outlined in a separate elder care bill, proposed by Lamont, were moved into the legislation approved by the Senate Tuesday. They include a plan to develop a set of standards that would allow some nursing homes to be designated as “Centers for Excellence.” The designation would be awarded to facilities that demonstrate better care, and rankings would be developed with input from industry leaders, the long-term care ombudsman’s office and other stakeholders. The program would be voluntary and is meant to incentivize higher quality care. And under the bill, the state would create a website where people could compare nursing homes’ quality ratings, track complaints and find information about recent safety violations and staffing levels. Multiple agencies could feed information to the site. “This does really represent an important advancement for Connecticut senior care policy and empowering customers to make informed decisions about the care they receive,” Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said. “There is a high level of anxiety among people who are needing care perhaps for the first time in their lives after being able to live independently until a fairly advanced age, so both the agencies and the people they serve will gain assistance from this bill.”