Health Law Advisor

Health care registry companies provide families and their loved ones with peace of mind by providing matchmaking and referral services for qualified, pre-screened and vetted home caregivers. They often also provide administrative services. As part of the “gig economy,” health care registries often tread a fine line in classifying caregivers as independent contractors rather than employees. A new Field Assistance Bulletin (“Bulletin”), “Determining Whether Nurse or Caregiver Registries are Employers of the Caregiver,” issued on July 13, 2018, by the Wage and ...

On January 12, 2018, the Maryland General Assembly completed its expected override of Governor Hogan’s May 25, 2017, veto of a bill it passed last April, joining eight other states, the District of Columbia, and various local jurisdictions (including Montgomery County, Maryland) already requiring employers to provide paid sick and safe leave.

As we reported  when the bill originally passed, the new law will require most employers with at least 15 employees to provide up to five paid days (forty hours) per year of sick and safe leave to their employees, and smaller employers to ...

The state of Maryland appears poised to join seven other states and various local jurisdictions (including Montgomery County, Maryland) already requiring employers to provide paid sick and save leave. On April 5, 2017, the Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill previously passed by the Maryland Senate that would require most employers with at least 15 employees to provide up to five paid sick and safe leave days per year to their employees, and smaller employers to provide up to five unpaid sick and safe leave days. Although the bill contains an effective date of January 1, 2018 ...

In a decision with significant implications for private hospitals, on March 7, 2017, the Third Circuit held in Doe v. Mercy Catholic Medical Center that medical residents may bring private causes of action for sex discrimination under Title IX against private teaching hospitals operating residency programs, and are not limited to claims under Title VII.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §1681, et seq., prohibits sex discrimination in any “education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a). A former resident ...

On Monday, June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the new U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) requirement that home care providers pay the federal minimum wage and overtime to home care workers.  As we previously discussed, on August 21, 2015, the D.C. Circuit in Home Care Association of America v. Weil affirmed the validity of the Home Care Final Rule, which eliminated a long-existing prior regulation and barred third-party employers from claiming minimum wage and overtime exemptions for home care workers.

The U.S ...

Reversing a decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, an August 21, 2015 decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Home Care Association of America v. Weil (pdf) has approved a regulation by the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) extending federal minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers and live-in domestic service employees employed by third parties.

We previously wrote about the decision by the District Court for the District of Columbia that vacated a DOL regulation that had been ...