Fiscal leaders are pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill into law to improve public data about New York's home care industry as the state's growing aging population places higher demands on the system and underpaid workers abandon the field.

The legislation would mandate the state Health Department publish a report each year showing how home care services in the state are used, including the number of people receiving what types of service, their location and what managed care plans provide the care.

In a letter earlier this month, Citizens Budget Commission President Andrew Rein urged the governor to sign the bill, and that the required report would provide important insight into the home care industry and the state's Medicaid program and health services as a whole.

"Improved understanding is critical to identify the aggregate fiscal impacts driven by changes in price and utilization rate of home care services, as well as for impacts of related policy actions, such as changes to the minimum wage, which are concentrated primarily in the home- and community-based services category," Rein wrote.

Citizens Budget Commission officials say the information would help the state's overwhelmed home care industry and Medicaid spending — the single largest part of the state's $229 billion budget. 

"Not only would we expand this bill in an ideal world to the whole Medicaid program, but the whole of government, too," CBC state policy director Patrick Orecki said Friday.

He added the data will help sharpen the state's fiscal picture and give state leaders a better understanding as Gov. Hochul starts to prepare her executive budget.

Sponsor Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas said it's essential data for people needing home care, and would shape legislative and budgetary decisions to reverse the statewide shortage.

"We can't fix anything if we don't have the data and the information to do so," she said. "...All this would be really important in informing our future solutions to address the homecare crisis that we're facing in New York."

The Health Department already tracks the information that would be included in the report.

Bryan O'Malley, executive director of the Consumer Directed Action of NY, says the public knows little about the state's home and personal care system, as the department only releases data when legally required such as after a Freedom of Information Law request or at the Legislature's annual budget hearings.

"The public should know more about where homecare stands in New York," O'Malley said.

More than half of Medicaid recipients access personal care services, he said, adding the data would show the discrepancies in home care services and reveal issues in different parts of the state.

"Without that information, we're operating in a black hole and can only provide what we think will help," O'Malley said.

Nearly 1 million New Yorkers will require home care by 2035, and the home care worker shortage could hit 1.47 million workers by then, according to Fiscal Policy Institute.

The base wage for New York home care workers is $17 an hour, and will increase to $17.55 per hour in upstate facilities and $18.55 downstate Jan. 1, or $2.55 above the minimum wage.

Advocates say they’ll fight next session for a $23 hourly pay rate.