Dive Brief:
- Lost in headline-generating decisions on affirmative action and abortion rights, the Supreme Court this week decided to pass on a case challenging a new Department of Labor rule that required higher wages for many home healthcare workers – meaning the rule will stand.
- The Labor Dept.'s new rule required third party employers, including home-healthcare agencies, to pay minimum wages and overtime to more workers, according to Modern Healthcare.
- The article explains how the home healthcare industry believed the rule would, among other things, raise the cost of care for patients and damage the industry. On the flip side, employee advocates believed the new rule, which only applies to workers employed by third parties such as agencies, would, over time, help workers and the industry.
Dive Insight:
Sarah Leberstein, with the National Employment Law Project, told Modern Healthcare that “stabilizing worker income and improving standards will ease the tremendous burnout and turnover” that negatively impacts both the industry and patients.
Representing the industry perspective, William Dombi, a vice president at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, told Modern Healthcare that Monday's decision was “disappointing,” though he added that the efforts will continue to “protect the home care consumer, who we think is the primary victim of all this.”
There is potential for more litigation, Dombi said, explaining that lawsuits could be filed against states who do not "put adequate Medicaid dollars behind the new requirements." Also, currently there are bills pending in the House and Senate that would undo the Labor Department rule, but those legislative efforts were on hold until the Supreme Court acted (in this case, decided not to act).
Despite the Court's decision to pass on the case, this situation is not yet resolved, as it depends on whether or not those bills ever become law.