Four home care operators in Portland, Maine, were indicted on counts of wage fixing and labor market allocation charges, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday. And there could be a lot more where that came from. On a webinar last week, Littler Mendelson lawyers covered five legal trends to watch in 2022. Three […]
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The House of Representatives passed the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill Saturday, which means the next step for the “American Rescue Plan” is to go through the Senate, where its provisions related to home-based care will likely be tinkered with again. Because pandemic-related unemployment benefits are set to expire on March 14, lawmakers are […]
Home-based care providers are dealing with an ongoing pandemic and simultaneously tackling vaccine education, procurement and distribution. Now, a slew of legislative labor provisions are threatening to disrupt both home health and home care agencies across the country. After President Joe Biden was inaugurated, his administration released a fact sheet that said “workers have a […]
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued an opinion letter allowing home care agencies to implement consistent shift rates that include pre-payment of overtime for caregivers who provide live-in services. In this case, a “live-in shift” is defined as being on the job for 24 hours or more at a time. Broadly, the DOL’s […]
Wage-and-hour litigation, confusing state-level regulations and an increase in federal audits were among the biggest legal trends of 2020. While many of these issues will remain in the year ahead, 2021 will also bring several more legal hurdles for home-based care providers. The decision of whether to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for home health and home […]
The dichotomy in the U.S. right now is evident, especially for those in health care: While vaccines and coinciding hope are being injected into Americans, the number of new COVID-19 cases each day continues to climb. And while every home-based care provider and worker keeps reading that the vaccines — both Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) and […]
Throughout 2020, there have been a number of new laws and legal trends that could have major impacts on the in-home care industry. In order for providers to be successful in the long run, it’s important to remain abreast of the latest developments. That was the message delivered by Angelo Spinola, an attorney and shareholder […]
Originally, home-based care providers were largely exempt from the mandates tied to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), including significant paid sick and family leave for workers during the COVID-19 crisis. Yet in early August, a court ruling by the Southern District of New York found that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) had […]
Home health operators shouldn’t get overly excited about federal testing support just yet. William A. Dombi — president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group — is cautioning providers to take a measured view of the conversation regarding potential COVID-19 tests being sent to the home health […]
After a Monday ruling regarding the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), many home-based care agencies are no longer considered health care providers, meaning they’ll now be forced to abide by robust federal paid-time-off mandates. “There’s a tremendous amount of confusion [over this], and I think that a lot of providers do not understand what […]