The Department recognizes the significance and unique nature of paid family and household caregiving in certain Medicaid-funded and certain other publicly funded programs. Although a paid family care provider can be an employee under the FLSA, the Department has determined that the FLSA does not necessarily require that once a family or household member is paid to provide some home care services, all care provided by that family or household member is part of the employment relationship. In such programs, the Department will usually not consider a family or household member with a pre-existing close, personal relationship with the consumer to be employed beyond a written agreement developed with the involvement and approval of the program and the consumer (or the consumer’s representative), usually called a plan of care. The plan of care will define the employment relationship if it is “reasonable,” and the determination of whether such an agreement is reasonable means that it treats a family or household member selected as a paid care provider in the same way it would a paid care provider who is not a relative or household member of the consumer. This determination includes consideration of whether the plan of care would have included the same number of paid hours if the care provider had not been a family or household member of the consumer. See Fact Sheet #79F: Paid Family or Household Members in Certain Medicaid-Funded and Certain Other Publicly Funded Programs Offering Home Care Services Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
October 2018
Tags: Home Care
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