Direct Care Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule revising previous guidance on how to determine whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The rule will take effect March 11. Determinations about who is an employee or independent contractor can have a big impact on direct care workers, and this revision will help to protect employees’ rights and ensure they benefit from protections under federal labor laws. The new final rule rescinds the 2021 Independent Contractor Rule and returns to longstanding DOL interpretation that is consistent with caselaw of how to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor...

AARP recently released the “National Inventory of Self‑Directed Long-Term Services and Supports Programs,” building upon the 2023 LTSS State Scorecard and previous inventories to provide an overview of all publicly funded self-directed Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) nationwide. This inventory includes estimates of numbers of participants, populations served, funding sources, and other key variables, and covers significant trends influencing the overall LTSS landscape, such as the well-documented national shortage of direct care workers. This marks the first report released since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, providing insight into the impact of the pandemic on self-direction programs...

The American Association on Health & Disability previously conducted a survey to assess the coronavirus pandemic's impact on access to healthcare on adults with a range of disabilities. AAHD has now published a report summarizing the findings from this survey. The initial report presents findings from all responses, while future reports will analyze results by specific type of disability.

The report provides an overview of the expected increased need for direct care workers and a breakdown of the current direct care workforce. In each description of barriers facing the direct care workforce, PHI includes program and policy recommendations. Challenges and recommendations in this report include areas regarding: wages and benefits, training, advanced roles, supervision, recruitment and retention, data collection, decision-making, family caregivers, and matching service registries.