Home Care for Maine and the Homemaking Services Contract

As many of you know by now, Home Care for Maine lost its appeal for the Homemaking Services Contract. That contract now will be served by Catholic Charities. The last day for Home Care for Maine providing these services is January 31, 2009. If your homemaking consumers are having trouble getting answers, encourage them to call Catholic Charities. After all, that's the agency that's going to be providing the service, they should be able to guide consumers through this tough transition. If you're a Home Care for Maine direct care worker who will be laid off because of this, please contact MSEA-SEIU at 1-800-452-8794 and ask to talk with Jay Economy, Aymie Walsh or Mike Sylvester. MSEA is there to help you with filing for unemployment and other aspects of being laid off. I learned Friday that office staff is also being laid off. I called to talk with my scheduler and discovered that she was gone.

Homemaking RFP Update

Tuesday, November 18th, was the second hearing on the appeal on the decision of DHHS's Office of Elder Services to award the Homemaking contract to Catholic Charities of Maine instead of the current service provider, Home Care for Maine. The appeal panel got to hear testimony from Catholic Charities. Home Care for Maine continued to make the point that Catholic Charities was over budget in five of the eight districts on which it provided proposals for. The next step is for both sides to submit closing summaries to the appeal board by 3 pm on November 25. The appeal board will start reviewing the case on December 1st and have fifteen days in which to make its decision. We will know if Home Care for Maine will continue to provide the homemaking services by mid December. In the meantime, Home Care for Maine will continue to be the service provider until January 31st.

Home Care for Maine Homemaking RFP Appeal

The date for the next appeal hearing is Nov. 18. At this time, I do not have the location or the time.

Home Care for Maine's RFP Appeal Hearing

This has previously been posted on Wednesday, 10/22; thought I'd post it again FYI. Thanks! Today was Home Care for Maine's appeal hearing on the Homemaker Services contract that was awarded to Catholic Charities of Maine. The morning started off by hearing testimony from Mollie Baldwin, Home Care for Maine's CEO. She was crossed examined by the State and by Catholic Charities attorneys. After a recess for lunch, Vicki Mihalik, HCM's program director, provided testimony on behalf of Home Care for Maine. She was also cross examined by the State and Catholic Charities attorneys. The State presented its testimony and that took the remainder of the afternoon as it's witnesses were cross examined by Home Care for Maine's and Catholic Charities'. Catholic Charities did not present its case as the session ran out of time.They will at a following session continuing the RFP hearing in November. Sometime during the week of November 17th will be the next hearing with Catholic Charities presenting its case. As soon as I know the date and time, I'll post it. I found this to be a very interesting day. I learned a lot about this RFP process that our agency goes through when it puts a proposal out to be a service provider. This particular RFP was with the Office of Elder Services. On another note, Mollie did tell me that we workers will get our quarterly stipend, even with the reduction in hours we've recently gone through with our homemaking cases. That's some good news I'm happy to pass along. As soon as I get the date for the next RFP hearing, I'll post it.

Home Care for Maine's RFP Appeal Hearing

Today was Home Care for Maine's appeal hearing on the Homemaker Services contract that was awarded to Catholic Charities of Maine. The morning started off by hearing testimony from Mollie Baldwin, Home Care for Maine's CEO. She was crossed examined by the State and by Catholic Charities attorneys. After a recess for lunch, Vicki Mihalik, HCM's program director, provided testimony on behalf of Home Care for Maine. She was also cross examined by the State and Catholic Charities attorneys. The State presented its testimony and that took the remainder of the afternoon as it's witnesses were cross examined by Home Care for Maine's and Catholic Charities. Catholic Charities did not present its case as the session ran out of time. They will at a following session continuing the RFP hearing in November. Sometime during the week of November 17th will be the next hearing with Catholic Charities presenting its case. As soon as I know the date and time, I'll post it. I found this to be a very interesting day. I learned a lot about this RFP process that our agency goes through when it puts a proposal out to be a service provider. This particular RFP was with the Office of Elder Services. On another note, Mollie did tell me that we workers will get our quarterly stipend, even with the reduction in hours we've recently gone through with our homemaking cases. That's some good news I'm happy to pass along. As soon as I get the date for the next RFP hearing, I'll post it.

Support Home Care for Maine's RFP Appeal

Tomorrow's the day. Come and show your support for fellow Home Care for Maine workers, union brothers and sisters that may lose their jobs and the consumers that we serve. The hearing for Home Care for Maine's appeal for the Homemaking Contract is tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 9 am in room 300 of the State Office Building in Augusta.

Home Care for Maine's RFP Appeal Hearing Postponed

The Appeal Hearing scheduled for October 14 has been postponed to Wednesday October 22 at 9 am in Room 300 of the State House. Show your support for fellow workers and our agency by being there, if possible. I know direct care workers have a hard time leaving their consumers, but if you're off that morning and are in the Augusta area, come show your support. This is an appeal hearing, open to the public. There will be no testimony from members of the audience, so no public speaking is involved. Please be there.

Home Care for Maine has been granted a "Stay of Execution" with the Homemaking RFP

I got word from our union headquarters last Friday that the Department of Health and Human Services granted Home Care for Maine the appeal HCM requested for the Homemaking Contract. I talked with Representative James Campbell of Newfield about the RFP and the fact that Home Care for Maine needed a "fair shake" in the appeal process. Rep. Campbell sits on the DHHS Legislative Committee, he's a strong advocate for Maine's elders. I knew he'd be able to help us and help our agency. Mollie Baldwin, HCM's ceo, sent letters out to workers informing us that the appeal has been granted and that we now have 60 days to continue working with our homemaking consumers. This is great news! Check the 771's blog as this moves forward. 771's leadership is developing a strategy to get the word out to workers and members of the legislature. With one strong, unionized voice, we can advocate for our consumers and ourselves.

A Word from Mollie Baldwin, Home Care for Maine's CEO

Dear Worker,

Today, Friday September 12, 2008, Home Care for Maine has filed a formal appeal with the state in disagreement with the awarding of the OES Homemaker Contract to Catholic Charities. The State has ten days to tell us if we will have our appeal heard. Our attorney thinks our case is a good one!

Your help is needed!

Call the Governor and your legislator now!

Call the Governor at 207-287-3531 or 207-287 6548 (TTY)

or visit his website at http://www.maine.gov/governor/baldacci/contact/index.html

Call your legislator at 1-800-423-2900

or visit the legislative website at

http://janus.state.me.us/house/townlist.htm

For a complete legislator list by town

visit the legislative website at

http://janus.state.me.us/house/townlist.htm

Please hang in there and keep working for HCM until we know the appeal outcome.

Please feel free to contact me with questions at any time. As we have answers we will gladly share them with each of you.

Sincerely,

Mollie Baldwin

CEO, Home Care for Maine

Home Care of Maine has filed its Appeal for the Homemaking Contract

I got word on Friday that Home Care for Maine filed the appeal for the Homemaking Contract. This grants HCM workers a little more time with their homemaking consumers. I don't know what the process is now or how long it takes, once the appeal is filed. Last Thursday, I gathered up a team of co-workers and we called members of Home Care for Maine's board of directors to let them know that the appeal should be filed. We mentioned the loss of work, but more importantly, what the changeover would mean to consumers. Many of my own consumers don't like the possible change. They are used to receiving quality services from the workers at Home Care for Maine. I urged those consumers that strongly oppose receiving services from Catholic Charities to call the Office of Elder Services at 1-800-262-2232 and the Ombudsman (the watchdog for elders) at 1-800-499-0229 to voice their concerns and what the changes mean for them. As you're talking with your consumers, please do the same. Get them to contact OES or the Ombudsman or even their representative. As I know more, I'll post it.

Home Care for Maine lost Its bid for the Homemaking Contract

I got word Thursday morning that we lost the contract to Catholic Charities of Maine. Home Care for Maine's board of directors and MSEA-SEIU is urging HCM's ceo to appeal the decision. What this means for HCM workers is that if you are a homemaker, you will no longer work for HCM. Catholic Charities will be the sole provider of homemaking services throughout the state. The contract with Catholic Charities starts up on October 1st. I don't know if it is an automatic shift from HCM to Catholic Charities for workers or if we need to apply for the job with Catholic Charities. If you've got questions, I urge you to bombard MSEA-SEIU headquarters and let our field reps know what you think. The number for headquarters is 1-800-452-8794. Our field reps are Rod Hiltz and Owen Sullivan. Owen's extension is 1129. He is our new field rep. I urge you to call him.