Home Health & Hospice Week

One state’s home care workers are saying their COVID-19 hazard pay is too little, too late.

Virginia workers’ first checks began arriving in early January, almost three months after Gov. Ralph Northam promised the one-time payments to more than 43,000 home health workers who care for Medicaid recipients in their homes instead of institutions, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Some workers were not happy with the big tax withholding amount for their checks, as much as 35 percent. A state spokesperson responded that tax withholding is required, according to the Times-Dispatch.

As for the delay, the spokesperson noted that it’s a very complex issue to ensure each worker gets one hazard payment when they can be employed by the patient, an agency, more than one agency, or any combination thereof, the newspaper says.

Meanwhile, more labor-related changes could be on the way under the Biden administration. Measures ranging from raising the federal minimum wage to boosting the unemployment benefit add-on to $400 per week to asking the “U.S. Department of Labor to consider clarifying that workers who refuse unsafe working conditions can still receive unemployment insurance” are on the table, notes a Jan. 22 fact sheet from the White House on the president’s executive actions since taking office.