From a casual glance at the account by the Pew Foundation’s StateLine in USA Today, you might think President Obama’s proposal to require overtime for home health carers (covered earlier here and here) was not so very costly or burdensome. “States wary home care worker rules could cost millions,” reads the headline. Paragraph 6 seems to confirm that the stakes are just in the low millions, which would be minor as health care policy changes go: “The U.S. Department of Labor estimates the rule will cost $6.8 million a year over a 10-year period, with private businesses and state Medicaid programs picking up the tab.”

On the other hand, you might find the above-cited number to be suspiciously low, what with advocates of the rule promoting it as a major boost to the take-home pay of nearly 2 million home care workers ($6.8 million works out to about three and a half bucks per year for each such worker). Thirteen paragraphs later, the tune has changed: “California, which already applies its $8 minimum wage to home care workers, but not overtime, estimates the new overtime requirements will cost the state more than $600 million in 2015-2016.” That is to say, just one state (California) gives an annual cost estimate for the rule that’s about 100 times the national cost estimate recited earlier in the piece. What gives?

This September account from Littler Mendelson, while not itself as clear as one might like, sheds some light on the discrepancy:

The DOL estimates the new regulations will affect approximately 1.9 million home care workers in the United States. The DOL contends the primary effect is “the transfer of income from home care agencies (and payers because a portion of costs will likely be passed through via price increases) to direct care workers, due to more workers being protected under the FLSA.” While described by the DOL as a “transfer of income,” in actuality the DOL’s numbers are the estimated annual cost to the home care agencies as a result of the new regulations. With respect to annual costs incurred for minimum wages, travel wages and overtime, the DOL estimates home care agencies will pay an average of $210.2 million the first year of implementation, increasing each year to an estimated $468.3 million on average by year 10. For annual regulatory familiarization, hiring costs (based on overtime hours needed to be covered by newly hired employees), and deadweight loss, the DOL projects home care agencies will incur $20.7 million on average in the first year, decreasing to an average of $5.1 million in year 10.

However, a March 2012 Navigant Economics Study: Estimating the Economic Impact of Repealing the FLSA Companion Care Exemption suggests a much higher cost to home care agencies. Although Navigant studied the economic analysis published by the DOL in the 2011 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the study continues to suggest that the DOL has underestimated the compliance costs of the new regulations. According to Navigant, the DOL has: disregarded the impact on live-in workers, a group the study contends are disproportionately more likely to incur extended periods of pay at the overtime wage under the new regulations; underestimated the cost of paying home care workers for travel time; and underestimated the increased cost to the home care agencies for compliance with the minimum wage protection afforded by the FLSA. Ultimately, the study concludes the annual cost to home care agencies is significantly higher than the DOL has predicted.

It’s almost as if DoL has been doing its part to promote the president’s proposal by systematically lowballing, complicating and hiding its costs. The USA Today story has this relevant passage about some other costs that may be less readily monetized:

Joseph Bensmihen, president of United Elder Care Services, Inc., a caregiver referral service in Boca Raton, Fla., said the most likely alternative for most of his clients, besides moving into a facility [emphasis added], will be to rotate caregivers to ensure that none works more than 40 hours a week. “This means that one of the most cherished benefits of home care among the elderly, disabled, and infirm, namely continuity of care, will be lost.”

It won’t take many hapless elderly persons moving from home and family care into nursing home facilities to exceed that absurd $6.8 million cost underestimate all by itself.

Filed under: medical, minimum wage, wage and hour suits