The U.S. Department of Labor is on pace to recover more money this year in back wages from the healthcare industry, with home health agencies on the hook for a large chunk of that.
According to a recent Inside Health Policy report, the department has recovered more than $9 million in back wages so far this year for 6,500 home health workers. In 2021, the Department of Labor recovered approximately $13.8 million from 17,000 healthcare workers in total.
The department has been cracking down on home health agencies for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by not paying overtime, improperly coding and failing to pay workers for travel time. So far this year, the department has filed more than 600 lawsuits against home health agencies.
Some of the violations have been in the millions of dollars. Last week, a Pittsburgh ComforCare Home Care franchisee and her daughter were ordered by a federal court to pay $2.4 million in overtime and back wages to 345 workers. Earlier this month, another Pittsburgh home care agency was ordered to pay $1.4 million in overtime to 218 workers.
In a statement disclosing the ComforCare lawsuit, Solicitor of Labor Seema Namda said court actions send a strong message to the home health industry.
“Employers must pay workers overtime when the law requires and they cannot evade the law by trying to hide their violations,” Namda said. “The solicitor’s office will continue to focus on this industry and show those who defy the law that there are costly consequences to such actions.”
The Fair Labor Standards Act did not apply to home care workers until 2015. The Department of Labor extended the protections through a regulation known as the Home Care Rule. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found some states have since restricted caregivers’ hours in an effort to limit overtime costs.
