ADVOCACY ALERT: Agencies Need Higher Reimbursement To Cover Aurora's Proposed Minimum Wage Increase

Aurora City Councilmember Alison Coombs has returned to the Aurora City Council with a revised proposed minimum wage proposal increasing the city's minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2025. The proposal would establish wages that significantly exceed even those minimum wages set by nearby Denver, which are currently the highest in Colorado.

Because of low Medicaid reimbursement, home care agencies already struggle to keep up with increased employment costs. The Home Care & Hospice Association of Colorado is concerned that agencies will not take new Medicaid clients in Aurora, or worse, will discharge Medicaid clients in Aurora because they can’t comply with the increased wage requirements.

We urge the state to raise reimbursement rates to cover higher minimum wages in Colorado cities, and we'd ask that Aurora hold off on this proposed increase until reimbursement is increased. 

URGENT: The Aurora City Council is considering this proposal at its evening meeting on Monday, Nov. 2.

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How to Take Action

Email the Aurora City Council -- emails are listed here

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Dear Aurora City Council, 

 As a Colorado constituent, I am contacting you to reconsider an ordinance that would increase Aurora’s minimum wage.  

I appreciate the intent of the proposal. I value my staff and want to pay caregivers more. But absent increases in Medicaid reimbursement, this proposal will eliminate access to much-needed services for vulnerable residents in Aurora.  

Home-based care allows people of all ages with special health needs to continue living in their homes and avoid costly hospital and/or nursing homestays. Aurora has the highest percentage of home care agencies in Colorado, and the highest concentration of Medicaid home care clients reside in Arapahoe County. For these and other Medicaid patients in the state, access to home care has already been increasingly limited. That is because many providers cannot afford to serve Medicaid patients given the low Medicaid reimbursement rate, which has not kept pace with basic operating costs that include the Colorado state minimum wage increases.  

In fact, lawmakers cut the Medicaid reimbursement rate for Aurora providers during the last legislative session despite the fact that it was already significantly below the level recommended by Colorado’s Medicaid Provider Rate Review Advisory Committee.  

To comply with the proposed Aurora minimum wage increase, home care providers would need very substantial increases in their Medicaid reimbursement rates. However, aside from nursing homes, the state is not required to increase Medicaid reimbursements to cover minimum wage increases. In fact, such increases are all but impossible given the economic downturn and the current state of Colorado’s budget. As a result, home care agencies will be increasingly unable to service Medicaid clients in Aurora, as Aurora’s minimum wage continues to increase. 

Please consider the unintended consequences of a citywide minimum wage increase on this specific workforce. We want to continue serving Medicaid beneficiaries in Aurora and providing jobs to our caregivers. Please reject this well-intentioned but ill-advised proposal so that we can continue to do so. 

Sincerely, 

(your name) 
(your county) 
(your zip code)