On Wednesday, Governor Hochul announced the official launch of the Health Care and Mental Hygiene Worker Bonus program. Enacted in the Fiscal Year 2023 New York State Budget, the program includes $1.3 billion for recruitment and retention bonuses for health care and mental hygiene workers. Bonuses will be awarded to eligible workers who make less than $125,000 annually and remain in their positions for at least six months. The maximum bonus for each employee is $3,000.

However, in guidance released this week, the Department of Health (DOH) extended the bonus eligibility to patient-facing food service workers, janitorial/maintenance workers and medical secretaries/administrative support who are employed by hospitals and nursing homes, but not to those same workers in other settings, which includes many of those in our Affiliates.

New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) released a statement applauding the administration for including additional frontline employees, but expressing dismay that they would not apply to employees performing the same work in different settings.

Coverage of the statement was published in the Niagra Gazette and Crain’s Health Pulse

Additionally, NYDA and CP State President and CEO Mike Alvaro sent a letter to DOH Commissioner Mary Bassett asking DOH to, “swiftly address this inequity and extend the same employee title eligibility to our employees with equivalent titles, serving individuals with I/DD.”