In April, the Departments of Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS) released a joint issue brief on the home and community-based services (HCBS) workforce. The brief, “Improving Data On The Workforce Delivering Home and Community-Based Services,” is in response to President Biden’s April 2023 Executive Order, Increasing Access to High Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers, which outlined key actions to strengthen the care continuum.

The Executive Order charged the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “jointly conduct a review to identify gaps in knowledge about the home and community-based workforce serving people with disabilities and older adults…”

In response, HHS and DOL established the Home and Community-Based Services Federal Opportunities Regarding Workforce and Research Data (HCBS FORWARD) workgroup. The issue brief summarizes the workgroup’s five recommendations:

• establish and regularly field a nationally representative survey of the HCBS workforce;
• establish and regularly field a nationally representative survey of adults with disabilities (ages 18-64) about their need for and receipt of services and supports;
• enhance consistent and systematic state data collection efforts and share evidence-informed best practices of state data collection on the HCBS workforce;
• maximize the availability of existing federal data sources to produce additional information on the HCBS workforce; and
• maximize existing administrative data sources to provide information on the HCBS workforce.

LeadingAge will continue to monitor activities related to President Biden’s executive order.