What should we be attending to in the next round of VA and veterans' legislation?

Fifteen percent is the gap?

I mean that can't work for very long.

By the way, that's a problem across the board. We had an Armed Services Committee hearing this week about the inability of many small businesses to interact with the Pentagon.

I think Brunswick or Portland is halfway between Madawaska and New York City. People don't realize how tall Maine is.

Everything we talked about still comes back to workforce, doesn't it? Home-based care, respite care. It's all having the people.

By the way, I got a great piece of advice. Someone asked Buckminster Fuller, the famous architect, for advice on how to live a long life. His answer was 'always use the bannister.'

Fifteen percent is the gap?

What can we do to expand and support home health services which I think everybody, including veterans, would prefer and really ramp that up.

We've really got to work on that because it would be awful to have somebody who's ready, wants a mission, wants to do it but they can't wait for nine months or a year.

I like the idea. In other words, additional federal funds not generally but targeted toward workforce retention?

My concern about that--and we'll talk to others about it--this is a rule that the--CMS is the federal agency, it's the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

What should we be attending to in the next round of VA and veterans' legislation?

That's a big part of----

The truth is, the work just begins when the bill passes.

Stabilize the workforce. This is directly tied to increased reimbursements, as you've heard, which need to be tied to inflation.

Could you define expansion? Are we talking 20, 30 percent, 40 percent? I mean----

I don't think there's one in Washington County either.

Certainly that's important. You have what amounts to a nursing home at Togus.

They're also going to be facing closure; aren't they?

The cheapest health intervention is the one that doesn't happen.

The cheapest health intervention is the one that doesn't happen.

So that's compounded by additional regulations that increase cost but don't provide any additional funds; is that correct?

Every day that you delay a nursing-home placement, the veteran is happier and the taxpayers are happier.

If retention is the goal, one of the ironies is that as you have gaps and you have longer hours and--that is a vicious downward spiral because people burn out.