Beyond Hospice: Home Health Agencies Plagued by UPICs and SMRCs
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
2019 brought continuing changes to employment law issues affecting the health care industry. The following Alert — prepared by K&L Gates’ collaborative team of employment lawyers dedicated to serving health care industry...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
As discussed in a prior article, unsuccessful bills proposed in the California legislature in 2017 can carry over into the 2018 session. State lawmakers may revive measures that did not make it through both chambers of the...more
On August 21, 2016, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law the Illinois Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, amending four existing state employment laws so they will now apply to domestic workers. Effective January 1,...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
Yesterday the U.S. Department of Labor began enforcement of its Home-Care Rule, which prohibits third-party employers from taking advantage of the overtime exemption for some domestic workers. The rule also narrows the...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
Last month, we highlighted a revival of Department of Labor (DOL) rules expanding overtime and minimum wage coverage to home health care workers. At the time, it appeared likely that the decision in Home Care Association of...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
After almost fourteen months of legal challenges, the U.S. Department of Labor has emerged victorious in its attempt to modify the FLSA’s companionship exemption. On August 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...more
Domestic service workers providing either companionship service or live-in care for elderly, ill or disabled persons and who are employed by a staffing agency or other third-party employer are entitled to minimum wage and...more
We’ve been talking potential bias in big data for some time now, and last week’s news was full of concerns about just that. The New York Times Upshot Blog interviewed a Microsoft computer scientist on the subject; NBC News...more
Last October, the federal Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division sent shockwaves through the home health care industry by issuing final rules declaring most of its employees to be subject to FLSA minimum wage and...more