Yesterday, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) announced a key victory for NAHC and the home care community which negates the overtime rule in federal court. The following excerpt is from the NAHC e-newsletter.
NAHC and all of the members of the home care community celebrated today when they learned that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down onerous new overtime rules promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
"What this means is that the rule, which would have taken affect January 1, 2015, will be set aside and that older Americans will once again enjoy access to personal care assistance in their own homes," said Val J. Halamandaris, President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "This is a victory for elderly and disabled persons who rely on home care," said Halamandaris.
The lawsuit challenged a rule that would prohibit the application of two overtime compensation exemptions: companionship services and live-in domestic services. It would have applied whenever caregivers were employed by anyone except the direct consumer of their services-90 percent of care would have been affected by the new overtime rule. This change would have created higher care costs that would have been borne by consumers and financially strapped government funding programs, such as Medicaid.
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