As home health care agencies explore ways to improve safety in the wake of a visiting nurse's homicide, the head of the Connecticut legislature's public health committee is pledging to make it a priority to boost funding for security measures.

"I can tell you this would be a priority," state Sen. Saud Anwar, D-South Windsor, said Thursday night.

The sense of urgency remains despite the fact the upcoming session is "short session," during which legislators are discouraged from introducing bills.

"This kind of health care is the fastest-growing segment of health care," Anwar said. "That's why it's important."

Anwar, a doctor, first laid out his vision at a Nov. 1 news conference at the Legislative Office Building. The event took place four days after a visiting mental health nurse, Joyce Grayson, was found dead in the basement of a Willimantic halfway house for sex offenders. Police arrested resident Michael Reese at the scene on misdemeanor drug paraphernalia and theft charges because he had a crack pipe and some stolen credit cards, they said. They have not charged him with the killing and have not released the name of the victim. Detectives with the Connecticut State Police are investigating.

The next day, Reese, 38, was charged with violating his probation from a 2007 sexual assault and first-degree assault conviction out of New Haven. He raped a woman, put her in a choke hold until she was unconscious and stabbed her in the neck in a cemetery after they had a disagreement over his refusal to pay her up front for sex, according to the warrant for his 2006 arrest.

Reese is in custody at the Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown in lieu of $1 million bail on the violation of probation charge plus $5,000 on the drug paraphernalia and sixth-degree larceny charges.

'Payment reform'

At the Nov. 1 news conference, Anwar said there are four things he thinks need to happen to improve safety for workers who provide care for patients in their homes.

A safety plan needs to be in place, he said. The agency needs to classify each patient according to risk both before and after the initial home health visit. The post-visit risk assessment is necessary because sometimes the visiting nurse, physical therapist or other health worker sometimes learns things about the patient the first time they meet.

"Sometimes you don't know the risk until you are already in that environment," Anwar said.

The last thing needed is money, Anwar said.

"We need payment reform," he said.

Home health professionals said at the news conference that the industry took two big financial hits, starting seven years ago, that made it more difficult for agencies to keep their traveling workers safe. The first was a 15 percent reduction in state Medicaid reimbursements in 2016, said Tracy Wodatch, president and CEO of Connecticut Association for Healthcare at Home, in a phone interview.

Most of the money is for behavioral nursing — the kind Grayson did, Wodatch said. The behavioral nursing money often funds medicine administration visits, quick stop-ins during which nurses make sure a patient is taking their meds. Grayson was scheduled to do such a visit with Reese on Oct. 28, home health advocates said.

The second cut was the elimination of Medicaid "add-on" money that, for years, had been used to provide home care for patients in inner cities, Wodatch said. One of the things the money paid for was escorts to accompany those providing care, she said. Wodatch said Friday that $6 million in add-on money was cut. She didn't have a number for the 2016 reimbursement reduction.

Possible changes now

Agencies are not waiting for the legislature to act next year before taking action, Wodatch said.

In addition to giving home health professionals a chance to talk about their loss, some agencies have been discussing the possible purchase of pepper spray and researching technologies that would allow a visiting nurse to call 911 with the press of a button, she said.

Wodatch, who used to call police for an escort when she was a visiting nurse years ago, said she also has a meeting scheduled with the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association to learn how police might be able to help caregivers who work in patients' homes. Some agencies already have been doing personal safety training with first responders.

The two groups will "talk about how we can collaborate to ensure safety," she said.