Washington state’s new long-term care program, WA Cares, will soon allow family members to be paid for providing care to loved ones. A pilot program is about to begin, and a group of people could become eligible to use the program in July.
But a key detail about how those caregivers enter the WA Cares workforce remains confusing, even though the state is recruiting sign-ups. It’s long past time future family caregivers — called individual providers, or IPs — are adequately informed about their options.
According to program guidance available on the WA Cares website and being communicated by administrators, individuals who want to provide in-home personal care under WA Cares have two options. They can work for a licensed home-care agency, or they can become an individual provider and be paid through Consumer Direct Care Network Washington (CDWA), the company the state uses to administer payroll and employment for many Medicaid caregivers.
The problem is what prospective caregivers encounter when they begin exploring provider qualification.
IPs employed through CDWA are represented for collective bargaining by SEIU 775, the union that represents tens of thousands of home-care workers statewide. Union membership itself is voluntary because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public employees cannot be required to join a union or pay union dues. While not public employees proper, individual providers are classified as public employees for the purpose of collective bargaining. The union’s presence is built into the workforce plan, with training programs, communications and onboarding materials connected to the WA Cares framework.
For experienced home-care workers, all this may be familiar. But many of the people who will consider becoming individual providers under WA Cares are not career caregivers. They are spouses, adult children and other relatives or family friends simply trying to help someone in need of long-term care while receiving modest compensation, using benefits made available to eligible beneficiaries because of tax payments that began in 2023.
Those applicants may not realize an important point: They do not have to be a union member to be a WA Cares caregiver. That distinction is not clearly explained in the application guidance. Clean guidance and a promised alternate pathway have also not been communicated by program administrators when asked.
Because the program currently directs potential individual providers to apply through CDWA, family members exploring the option may assume SEIU membership is part of the job. During onboarding, union membership forms could accompany employment paperwork. While joining a union and paying dues must legally be voluntary, new caregivers unfamiliar with the system may not fully understand that they have a choice. They could sign up without fully realizing what they are committing to and what part of their caregiving compensation could be sent to a union.
Union membership authorizations often include limited cancellation rules. A caregiver who signs a form without realizing it is optional may later find that ending dues payments is difficult and often requires waiting until the next designated revocation period. For this reason, the state has a responsibility to explain clearly how all this works and what is required of caregivers with WA Cares. At a minimum, the WA Cares website and application materials should explicitly state:
• Union membership is not required as a WA Cares caregiver.
• Applicants should read any union onboarding forms carefully before signing them.
• Caregivers may choose to join the union, but they are not required to do so to receive payment through WA Cares.
Providing that clarity would not undermine unions or the long-term care workforce. It would simply ensure that family caregivers understand their options before entering a complicated employment structure.
The next WA Cares webinar is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. March 10. Beneficiaries’ access to providers will be highlighted, and the notification about this webinar says the program will cover:
• How the program works
• Types of providers that will be able to register
• Minimum qualifications and requirements providers will have to meet
• How to register as a provider
You can register here. I’ll be watching to see if the updates and information I am hoping for are given.
WA Cares was created to help families plan for long-term care. The state should make sure they can navigate the program without confusion about their employment status — or their rights.
