​Beginning in July, the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will proactively work with all Healthy Connections Medicaid-enrolled providers who are categorized as high-risk to ensure they are in compliance with federal regulations. CMS requires providers classified as “high risk” to submit fingerprint-based criminal background checks.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division has been reviewing the regulations that implement the Fair Labor Standard Act’s minimum wage and overtime exemptions for bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees. DOL announced it will hold additional virtual listening sessions in May and June for both worker and employer stakeholders. These sessions are organized by region.

Dates and times for each listening session are listed online. To participate, register here. These are public events.
 
If you have questions, send an email to OTSessionInquiries@dol.gov.
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In this event notice, the agency seeks stakeholder input on issues such as:

• The appropriate salary level above which the exemptions for bona fide executive, administrative, or professional employees may apply.
• The costs and benefits of increasing the salary level to employers and employees, including increasing wages and reducing litigation costs.​
  
• The best methodology for updating the salary level, and the appropriate frequency of updates.
  
  

Next Wednesday, April 20, the HCAOA Connecticut Chapter will meet in-person to discuss issues that impact agencies in YOUR state.
 
You need to attend the in-person meeting so hear about:

• A bill being considered would prohibit home care agencies in Connecticut from including non-solicitation clauses in their contracts with caregivers - this means there would be no penalty if a client directly hires your agency’s home care aide
• OSHA reopened the ETS protecting healthcare workers from COVID exposure - what does this mean for home care?
• FDA recommended a second COVID booster for people 50+ - what does this mean for employers or another potential mandate?

 
The agenda includes updates from:

• Sami Asaad, FordHarrison, will discuss labor and employment laws affecting home care in Connecticut and will share what HCA owners need to know about new and relevant laws such as paid family and medical leave, non-compete agreements, wage, and hour compliance, including new wage range notification, and recreational marijuana.
• Eric Reinarman, Esq., HCAOA VP, Government Relations, will discuss HCAOA's policy priorities at the national level, and will share updates on advocacy efforts in other states, as well as work HCAOA has been doing on behalf of Connecticut. 
• Matthew Hallisey, Chapter Lobbyist, will provide an update on the 2022 legislative session of the Connecticut General Assembly and the status of public policy affecting HCAs.
• Marlene Chickerella, DSS Medicaid Committee Chair, will update attendees on the work of the committee and its efforts to seek increased reimbursement for home care services. 

 
Register now to attend on Wednesday, April 20 from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. at the Sheraton Hartford South Hotel. The cost is $40 for members and $80 for non-members. 

​Officials across the U.S. tried different approaches in the past year to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates, seeking to blunt the spread of variants and preserve hospital capacity. For example, officials launched incentive programs, stressed personal responsibility, and deployed mobile vaccination units to encourage vaccine uptake.

​No other state chapter quite packs a meeting agenda quite like the HCAOA Georgia Chapter! Register now for the upcoming full-day, full-agenda meeting on Thursday, May 19 at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. This meeting will feature updates from state regulators, national speakers, and state and federal advocacy leaders. It will fill up, so reserve your spot today!

​President Biden has nominated D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. If Jackson is confirmed, she will be the first Black female justice among the 115 justices who have served on the Court in its 232-year history.

While the issue of whether private employers can legally enforce vaccine mandates among their workforce continues to be challenged across the country, a split panel in the Fifth Circuit is the first appellate court to signal certain private employer mandates could be vulnerable. On February 17, the Fifth Circuit issued an unpublished 2-to-1 panel decision in Sambrano v. United Airlines. The opinion, which is of limited precedential value, reverses the district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction against the airline’s mandatory vaccine program. 

​Last month, Washington Gov. Inslee signed a bill that delays parts of WA Cares implementation by 18 months. Most immediately, premium collection for WA Cares won’t begin until July 2023. The Employment Security Department (ESD) won’t accept any WA Cares premium payments for the first quarter of 2022. Here is what employers in the state need to know.

​All members are invited to join the HCAOA Virginia Chapter for an important virtual meeting next Friday, February 18 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for an important update on the status of revisions to the Regulations for the Licensure of Home Care Organizations.

​With the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of challenges to the OSHA ETS and the CMS Vaccine Mandate making the headlines, less attention has been paid to the federal contractor vaccine mandate even though it remains a separate topic of continuing interest for many employers. Presidential Executive Order 14042 (September 9, 2021) directed the federal agencies to contractually require certain federal contractors and subcontractors to implement COVID-19 workplace safety measures, including a vaccine mandate with no “testing” option. According to an update from Littler, on January 21, the Georgia Federal District Court issued an order stating that its injunction applies only to enforcement of the federal contractor vaccine mandate and that the requirements relating to masking, social distancing, and designation of an individual to coordinate COVID-19 safety protocols at covered workplaces have not been enjoined. 

​HCAOA has filed litigation in an attempt to block California’s home care registry law that gives home care workers’ personal contact information to unions. While we lost our case in a lower court, we filed an appeal and on January 12, oral argument in the AB 2455 appeal in the Ninth Circuit was held. Maury Baskin from the Littler firm argued the case on behalf of HCAOA to a three-judge panel consisting of two Obama appointees and one Reagan appointee. Attorneys for the State and the SEIU argued in opposition, challenging both HCAOA’s standing to sue and also denying that the Act was preempted by federal labor law.

.​HCAOA Associate Member Bob King, Esq., Legally Nanny, represents hundreds of home care agencies in California and nationwide, and has spent much of this time defending home care agencies in wage and hour litigation. He reports that the same claims come up again and again in these cases, so he put together a brief overview of pertinent issues and what owners and managers can do to protect their home care agencies.

​Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on challenges to both the CMS vaccine mandate and the OSHA vaccine-or-test Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for large employers. Most court observers agreed that a majority of the justices were skeptical of OSHA’s ability to impose its mandate, but seemed more receptive to the CMS rule. The Court’s ruling is expected any day.

​Last month in Jinks v. Credico (USA) LLC, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded that the appropriate method for determining whether two companies were “joint employers” for purposes of the Massachusetts wage and hour laws is to evaluate the “totality of the circumstances of the parties’ working relationship.” This is the same test courts apply when analyzing this issue under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).