The Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) California Chapter received confirmation that a temporary workaround to the new Guardian system has been approved. Guardian is a new electronic data system, designed to streamline the background check process for all licensed care, including the TrustLine Registry, Home Care Aide Registry and Community Care Licensing staff. ​

​On February 25, 2021, Wisconsin enacted a new law designed to help reduce ambiguity regarding COVID-19-related liability. The statute, which became effective on February 27, 2021, gives certain entities broad immunity from civil liability related to COVID-19 unless they acted recklessly or engaged in wanton conduct or intentional misconduct. Read more
The immunity applies to lawsuits filed after February 27, 2021, asserting claims that accrued on or after March 1, 2020. The immunity is in addition to any other applicable immunities that may be provided by law.

Importantly, the immunity applies not only to employers with respect to workplace incidents of COVID-19, but also in many other contexts, including, for example, COVID-19-related lawsuits against long-term care providers (e.g., by their patients and/or patients’ families), retail establishments (e.g., by their customers), and universities (e.g., by their students). read more

​The State of Wisconsin is proposing a tax credit for family caregivers and we are asking all members to contact your Wisconsin State Legislators to encourage them to support the Caregiver Tax Credit proposed in the Governor’s Budget. We want to make it easy for you to lend your voice to this issue! Use the template provided here to send a message to your legislator. 

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​Protecting the Right to Organize Act
Last week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that the House will consider the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act during the week of March 8. The PRO Act, which passed in the House by a largely party-line vote in 2020, currently has 209 cosponsors, including three Republicans. Among others provisions, the controversial bill would:

HCAOA is committed to providing tools and resources to members to help you get through all of the COVID twists and turns. Many members have reached out to ask for help educating their caregivers about the vaccine, so HCAOA has teamed up with members and partners across the country to talk with frontline caregivers about why they got the shot! ​

Need a COVID vaccine authorization form for your employees? These forms, provided by Littler, are intended to be used to obtain employees’ consent for the release of their vaccination information by the employer to a third party. If you would like to offer this option to your employees, you can download the forms below.