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Aging Committee Co-Chairs Sen. Jan Hochadel and Rep. Jane Garibay, along with Rep. Mary Fortier, listen to testimony during a public hearing in February. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror

Members of the Aging Committee voted to advance a measure that would create new training mandates for employees at homemaker companion agencies, which provide non-medical, home-based services such as housekeeping, meal preparation, running errands and transportation.

Prior to passing the bill last last week, lawmakers reduced the number of required training hours to eight, down from 10, for new employees, and added a provision to make the training portable — so workers don’t have to retake the courses if they change agencies.

Under the proposal, new employees at homemaker companion companies would have to complete at least eight hours of training on a variety of topics, including maintaining a clean and safe environment (practices related to dressing, bathing and toileting), identification and reporting of abuse and neglect, communication, identifying and reporting changes in a client’s condition, and non-medical services for people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

To continue their education, workers would also be required to complete each training program at least once every two years.

Under the legislation, the state’s consumer protection commissioner, working with three other departments, would have to come up with the list of programs. Upon completion of training, homemaker companion employees and their supervisors would need to submit a form attesting they’d finished the program.

Legislators worked with home care industry officials to revise the bill before it came up for a committee vote.

“We’re very thankful to them for listening to our concerns,” said Tracy Wodatch, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association for Health Care at Home. “What they came out with in the substitute language does very closely mirror what we asked for — the training topics, the reduced hours and the portability.”

Wodatch says she’s hoping some money is included in the state budget to support the training.

“This would be another unfunded mandate,” Wodatch said. Agencies “would have to pay their staff to do the training, so that takes them out of the field, and we’re already severely underfunded for that level of care. That’s our biggest concern.”

Lawmakers are still working out the details of their proposed budget, which they’re expected to unveil by early next month.

The number of homemaker companion agencies in Connecticut has risen sharply over the last decade as more people age at home. In 2012, there were 380 registered homemaker companion agencies. By 2022, the number had grown to more than 900.

State officials now estimate there are 1,100.

But the industry has operated with little oversight, the Connecticut Mirror reported in 2023. Unlike nursing home employees and home health aides, who must be licensed by the state Department of Public Health, there is no licensing process for homemaker companion workers. Those agencies must instead register annually with the state Department of Consumer Protection.

Company managers are required to conduct criminal background checks on prospective employees but aren’t required to share that information with the state, which does not track who works at the agencies.

CT Mirror reviewed more than 75 complaints against homemaker companion agencies filed with the consumer protection department between 2018 and 2020 and discovered at least half a dozen cases in which homemaker companion agency employees were arrested for allegedly stealing from their clients, along with over a dozen findings by DCP investigators of agencies that routinely misadvertised their services and seven complaints of clients being left alone for hours at a time.

Many of the DCP investigations led to small fines of less than $5,000 or an employee being fired. Agency officials acknowledged the department had never denied a homemaker companion business’s registration and had never revoked a business’s registration following an investigation.

Last week, Aging Committee members voted unanimously in favor of advancing the training requirements bill. It now heads to the House floor.

“It’s going to be good for our population that the needs [of home care residents] are better understood with this training,” said Committee co-Chair Rep. Jane Garibay, D-Windsor.

Jenna is a reporter on The Connecticut Mirror’s investigative desk. Her reporting on gaps in Connecticut’s elder care system prompted sweeping changes in nursing home and home care policy. Jenna has also covered lapses in long-term care facilities, investigated the impact of cyberattacks on hospitals, and uncovered the questionable dealings of health ministry groups that masquerade as insurance. Her reporting sparked reforms in health care and government oversight, helped erase medical debt for Connecticut residents, and led to the indictments of developers in a major state project. Her work has been recognized by the National Press Foundation and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Before joining CT Mirror, she was a reporter at The Hartford Courant, where she covered government in the capital city with a focus on corruption, theft of taxpayer funds, and ethical violations.