Hundreds of Home Care Providers To Gather in Las Vegas for NPDA's Annual Leadership Conference

 

Marketed as the "biggest private duty event of the year", the National Private Duty Association is preparing to host its Annual Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, March 2-4, 2011. The theme for this year's conference, held at the Planet Hollywood Resort, is Take the Gamble Out of Home Care.   Attendees also have the opportunity to attend a special "pre-conference" event n March 1, 2011.  "Grow - Profit - Exit" is the theme of this MBA level conference featuring 3 outstanding speakers - George Hedley, Hardhat Presentations; Steve LeFever, Business Resource Services; and Dexter Braff, the Braff Group.

 

As NPDA's showcase event, the Annual Leadership Conference offers keynote presentations,  peer networking and discussion opportunities, education programs led by private duty industry experts, and an industry trade show. Session topics will cover hiring practices, caregiver training, client support, business marketing strategies, legal issues and technology.
 
2011 keynote presenters include best selling author Dr. Tom Barrett who will address the little things home care agency leaders can do every day to attract and retain clients, and human resources expert Mel Kleiman who will share his proven process on how to build world-class teams by recruiting, hiring and retaining the best employees.  

 

Conference attendees will witness many firsts in the private duty home care industry, including the naming of the industry's first national Caregiver of the Year. Another first is the All-Star Panel of experts who will address key issues impacting private duty home care businesses, including health care reform and wage and hour laws.

 

Click here for details on the conference and to register.  Be sure to make your reservations at Planet Hollywood prior to the February 1, 2011 cut-off date.  After this date, we can not guarantee availability or the special annual leadership conference discounted rate of $129 plus tax.

 

Federal Legislative Report

By Dani Kehoe, DBK Consulting, Washington, D.C.

 

The past month's activity can be divided into two distinct sections: legislation enacted just before Christmas by the lame duck 111th Congress, the start of the 112th Congress in early January.

  

Lame Duck Congress Actions

 

On December 17, President Obama signed the year-end tax bill into law.  Most of it has essentially no impact on the private duty industry, but certain provisions will be of interest to the individuals who own/work for/run NPDA member companies. Plus, there is one new rule—the one-year payroll tax reduction for employees—that NPDA member companies will have to administer.

 

Payroll Tax Adjustment: The new law provides that in 2011 only, the employee share of Social Security tax drops from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. Also only in 2011, self-employed payroll tax liability drops from 12.4 percent to 10.4 percent. This tax break applies only up to the wage base ($106,800 in 2011). NPDA companies will have to adjust their payroll systems to accommodate this change.

 

Unemployment Benefits: The new law also extends, through the end of 2011, eligibility for up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.Despite some attempts to include extension of the HIRE Act tax benefits for hiring new workers who had been unemployed, the new law does not contain any HIRE Act extensions. A summary of the new law is at the end of this report.

 

Beginning of the 112th Congress

 

Health Reform: The 112th Congress convened on January 5, 2011. Among its first actions was introduction of legislation, H.R.2, to repeal last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the health reform law. On January 6, the House—now controlled by a substantial 242 to 193 GOP margin—approved a rule for debating repeal of health reform. The seven-hour debate, to be followed by a House vote that most insiders believe would have resulted in House approval of the bill (with a handful of Democrats joining all Republicans in voting for H.R.2), was set for January 12.

 

However, the tragedy in Arizona on January 8 intervened, and that vote is now on hold. It is unclear when it will take place, although it is probable it will be relatively soon—perhaps by the end of January.

 

While H.R.2 likely will pass the House, it is highly unlikely it will win Senate approval—and even if it does, President Obama has already issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) stating decisively that he will veto any bill that would repeal the PPACA. Acknowledging that, Congressional Republicans plan a number of other initiatives aimed at rolling back PPACA rules. These range from repeal of specific provisions (e.g., the $2,500 cap on flexible spending accounts; the requirement that businesses report, via Form 1099, aggregate expenditures (per vendor) of $600 or more per year; and repeal of the CLASS Act long-term care/disability income federal insurance program) to appropriations measures that would prohibit use of federal funds for implementation of PPACA provisions.

 

NPDA is actively working on coalition building as well as lawmaker education to make sure the various repeal/modification initiatives include either fixing or repealing the employer responsibility rules.

 

There was no activity on any other issue of interest to NPDA during the  first week of January. Here is a summary of what we expect relative to those issues.

 

Worker Classification: There are three separate worker classification initiatives "left over" from last year that will reemerge—to a more or less vigorous degree—this year.

 

First, there is the tax arena: we do expect President Obama to include a worker classification proposal in the fiscal year 2012 budget he submits to Congress in mid-February. That proposal will likely call for more regulatory authority for the IRS to clarify and enforce existing worker classification rules. Similar legislation is also likely to be introduced by Congressional Democrats, but is unlikely to gain any traction among GOP lawmakers. This is because the worker classification issue is widely viewed as a Labor (unions) priority and Labor priorities are not high on the GOP priority list.

 

Next, there are proposal to impose recordkeeping requirements (under the authority of the FLSA) on employers in an effort to improve compliance with existing worker classification rules. Again, these bills are likely to be reintroduced by Democrats in both the House and Senate, but are unlikely to win support among Republicans.

 

Finally, the IRS and DOL are joining forces with State agencies to enhance enforcement of existing independent contractor rules. So far there is little evidence of "push-back" on this effort, and because it is described as a way of enhancing much-needed State revenue (and federal revenue, too), it does not appear to be generating opposition among Congressional Republicans. However, it is very early in the 112th Congress and that "push-back" may materialize later.

 

Companion Care Exemption/Direct Care Workforce Act: Last year (and last Congress) legislation that would gut the companion care exemption to the FLSA was introduced by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) in the House and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) in the Senate. H.R.3693 and S.5902 both died with the end of the 111th Congress. We anticipate both Rep. Sanchez and Sen. Casey will reintroduce their bills in the 112th Congress, but neither has done so as of yet. The 1112th Congress' legislative priorities do not appear to include this issue, however, and there is no expectation that the 112th Congress will act on these bills, if and when they are reintroduced.

 

On the regulatory level, DOL's Wage & Hour Division (WHD) reports it plans to issue in October, 2011 a regulatory proposal that may affect the FLSA companion care exemption. To date, there is little information on what the WHD is looking at—and some evidence to suggest that the work is in its very preliminary stages (i.e., a decision has been made to say the agency will be looking at this issue, but little in the way of actual examination of it has actually taken place). NPDA will continue to monitor the WHD activity very closely.

 

NPDA Welcomes New Associate Members

ConeXus  enables agencies to communicate with their field staff by text, e-mail and phone, via one unified platform, eliminating the process of manually calling an entire group of employees individually.  It is typically used to notify staff of job availability, emergencies, scheduled in-services, required medicals and more, and provides a full audit trail of who was contacted and when.  Enterprise is a comprehensive software for referral management, scheduling, telephony, billing, payroll interface, HR, reporting and business intelligence.  It is currently used by over one hundred home care agencies in New York, and will be slated for use in other states by mid-2011.  Both ConeXus and Enterprise were developed by Homecare Software Solutions - HHA eXchange a leading provider of innovative software and communications tools for the home care industry.

Website: www.hhaexchange.com

Contact: David Birnbaum - david@hhaexchange.com

 

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