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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Home Health Compliance:

Don't Jump The Gun On Companionship Exemption Planning

Published on Tue Jan 31, 2012

How much risk are you willing to take on? The Department of Labor's dramatic proposal to eliminate the companionship exemption for all employees of home care agencies can make providers want to take action, but you may want to hold off. Elimination of the companionship exemption for home care employees will subject them to overtime and minimum wage requirements in the Fair Labor Standards Act. But don't be so sure that proposed elimination will take place, says Washington, D.C.-based attorney Elizabeth Hogue. "Regulations addressing the minimum wage and overtime exemptions related to home care have a very tortured history," Hogue tells Eli. "The DOL has proposed regulations addressing these issues that were never finalized." And in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a DOL interpretation of FLSA which exempts companion workers for the elderly from minimum wage and overtime laws -- including workers employed by home care agencies. However, the Obama [...]
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