Beyond Hospice: Home Health Agencies Plagued by UPICs and SMRCs
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”), through its Wage and Hour Division (“WHD”), has been intensifying its pursuit of Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) violations by residential care facilities, nursing facilities, home...more
On November 23, 2021, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced an education, outreach and enforcement initiative to ensure employers pay professional caregivers minimum wage and overtime in accordance with...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The DOL issued an opinion letter approving a pay model where an employer in the home health field payed its employees at an hourly rate for time spent with patients without additional hourly pay for time...more
It is hard to believe that it has been three years now since the federal Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) “companionship” exemption was strictly limited to direct-hire caregivers engaged in a narrower scope of activities,...more
Citing the need “to preserve the status quo, prevent the collapse of the home healthcare industry, and avoid institutionalizing patients who could be cared for at home,” the New York Department of Labor (NYDOL) has issued...more
Claims by home care workers for unpaid overtime have risen steadily since the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2015, eliminated the federal overtime exemptions that allowed agency employers essentially to pay no overtime wage...more
The federal government recently extended minimum wage and overtime protections to most home health care workers. If you are hiring a caregiver for yourself or an elderly loved one, you need to become familiar with the rules,...more
On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the plaintiffs’ petition for a writ of certiorari in Home Care Association of America v. Weil, leaving the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Home Care Rule intact. The Home...more
As 2014 wound to a close, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a significant decision impacting third-party agencies that provide in-home care to the elderly and ailing. On December 22, 2014,...more
On October 16, 2015, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning new rules for extending the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program for international students...more
In an order dated October 20, 2015, pursuant to the D.C. Circuit’s mandate issued on October 13, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon entered summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in Home...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently reinstated regulations from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), extending federal minimum wage and overtime requirements to home health workers employed by third-party...more
On October 6, 2015, Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court of the United States summarily denied the emergency stay application filed by the association plaintiffs in Home Care Association of America v. Weil. In the...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) promulgated a rule that brings home care workers, employed by third parties, within the protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As a result, those home care workers employed by an...more
On December 22, 2014, in Home Care Association of America v. Weil, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated a key portion of a U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulation amending the minimum wage and...more
Recently, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Home Care Association of America, et al. v. Weil, that the Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) regulations about the inapplicability of certain statutory exemptions for...more
A U.S. Department of Labor final regulation prohibiting third-party home care agencies and other third-party employers from taking advantage of the Companionship and Live-In Domestic Worker minimum wage and overtime...more
Agencies and other third-party employers of live-in household employees and home companionship providers, take note: the long-delayed regulations reclassifying many of these workers as non-exempt employees entitled to minimum...more
As we previously reported, on August 21, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Home Care Association of America v. Weil reinstated the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) regulations extending the...more
As we recently reported, the U.S. Department of Labor's changes in its regulations governing the Fair Labor Standard Act's Section 13(a)(15) "companionship" exemption and Section 13(b)(21) overtime exemption for "live-in...more
Reversing a decision celebrated by employers in the home care industry, the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that home health care agencies must comply with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) 2013 domestic service...more
On August 21, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the U.S. Department of Labor’s revisions to the “companionship exemption” under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and reversed two...more
On August 21, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Home Care Association of America v. Weil reversed a lower court decision and upheld the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) 2013 regulatory change...more
Home health care providers could expect to pay their employees more after the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held an exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) no longer applies to third-party employers of...more
Earlier this year, we brought news that the DOL had revised its regulations applicable to home health care workers. Those regulations, which related to domestic workers who provide “companionship services,” narrowed...more