The Growing, Troublesome Issues Around Non-Solicitation Agreements In Home Care

Home Health Care News | By Audrie Martin

In August, Comfort Keepers was fined $500,000 and forced to remove language from its contracts restricting caregivers from accepting positions with home care clients up to one year after terminating employment.

That contract language, dubbed a non-solicitation agreement, is a widely used clause in home care contracts to protect providers’ businesses.

On its end, the Irvine, California-based Comfort Keepers is a large franchise that offers non-medical in-home support, including meal preparation, companionship and personal assistance.

The company required each client to execute a care agreement containing this language before receiving services. California Attorney General Rob Bonta concluded that this agreement violated California law by restraining worker mobility, as caregivers could not be hired by any Comfort Keepers client, not just the client to whom they were assigned to provide services.

In a statement issued to Home Health Care News, Comfort Keepers wrote, “We value Comfort Keepers caregivers, who are the heart and soul of each of our franchises and the Comfort Keepers brand. “As a service-based company, the quality of our care is rooted in the dedication and expertise of the caregivers who serve as employees. We invest significantly in their development to ensure the success of our services, the satisfaction of clients and the wellbeing of the caregivers. While this investment comes at a cost, we believe protecting the caregivers who become invaluable to our clients through their training and expertise is essential. Comfort Keepers is not seeking to limit or restrict any employee’s ability to earn a living; rather, we believe in a business’s right to protect its assets, ensuring the continued excellence of the care we provide.

Comfort Keepers maintains that direct hire provisions do not hinder workers from finding future employment. These provisions are designed to provide service-based businesses with compensation when the care recipient elects to hire a caregiver vetted, background-checked and trained by the agency in the form of a reasonable amount for the placement services it provided.

This is standard practice with service-based businesses across many industries. Furthermore, this is part of a larger and evolving issue being scrutinized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”

Angelo Spinola, home health, home care and hospice chair at the Polsinelli law firm headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, was involved in the case and told HHCN he thought the attorney general was incorrect in his position.

“They are applying a law that applies to non-compete agreements with employees to a client service agreement,” he said.

Non-compete and non-solicit agreements

In general, Spinola said that restrictive covenants are divided into confidentiality, non-compete and non-solicit agreements. These agreements are based on state laws, and certain states limit their use.

Non-solicitation agreements in home care are meant to prevent clients from hiring a caregiver directly and cutting out the agency. These agreements protect the agency’s business without restricting the caregivers’ mobility, providers believe. If the contract is violated, the agency may seek legal action and sometimes request damages…

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‘This Feels Different’: Lawmakers Push Federal Legislation To Tackle Health Care Workforce Crisis

Home Health Care News | By Joyce Famakinwa
 
Lawmakers have introduced federal legislation that aims to address the shortage of health care professionals, including home-based care professionals. 
 
On Wednesday, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky), and co-sponsor Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky), introduced H.R.9812 into the House of Representatives. The bill is looking to tackle the dearth of nurses, nurse aides and more, by incentivising states to develop health care workforce partnerships.
 
The bill provides grant funds to offset up to 50% of a state appropriation for health care workforce public-private partnerships and scholarships.
 
The bill is modeled after an approach that’s being taken in Kentucky. For Kentucky, the passage of the bill has been a positive development.
 
“The statute itself lists 14 health care occupations that are in critical need in Kentucky, and it supplies funding, so that we can match industry donations for both training scholarships and incentive funds,” Leslie Sizemore, associate vice president of workforce and economic development at the Kentucky Council On Postsecondary Education, told Home Health Care News. “The majority of the interest has been in the training scholarships, and we have just recently gone through our very first submission period and award notices. We were able to really impact the potential for developing the workforce in this area.”
 
Success in Kentucky points to the potential of a federal health care workforce program that is bolstered by collaboration.
 
Plus, Kentucky isn’t an anomaly. Louisiana recently passed similar legislation, and Florida has a system with a similar mechanism.
 
Sizemore believes that the public-private partnership aspect, in particular, has been a game changer. 
 
“People have always looked to higher education as really supplying the talent needs that the workforce has to have to continue to work, but we’ve really never capitalized on the industry as being a partner in that,” she said. “For the very first time, we’re pulling together industry partners, government officials and our higher education officials in the same room to say, ‘What do we need to do to make sure that Kentucky has enough resources?”
 
What’s more, in a March response letter to the U.S. Senate’s request for information regarding solutions to the national health care workforce crisis, the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare (PQHH) pointed to Kentucky and Florida as blueprints. PQHH also spoke about nationalizing these models. 
 
At the time, PQHH CEO Joanne Cunningham expressed optimism around what she viewed as a true effort to find actionable solutions to the health care workforce crisis. 
 
“It feels different to me,” she previously told HHCN. “It feels like there is some renewed interest and effort to, on a bipartisan basis, work together on creative solutions that leverage all the interest and all the good ideas out there, to see something happen. I’m hopeful and I think this momentum is exciting.”

Navigating the Future: Leveraging HHVBP Insights for Optimal Payment Adjustments

October 9 (11:00 AM – 12:00 PM MT)

McBee

During this webinar, McBee’s presenters will provide a fresh perspective on how to interpret the HHVBP reports and identify key areas of improvement to enhance your performance metrics. Agencies have just over a quarter to impact their payment in 2026. Now is the time to strategize for improved performance in 2025 and payment in 2027.

By strategically addressing weaknesses and optimizing care delivery, your agency can secure favorable payment adjustments, ensuring you remain competitive in the evolving landscape of home health care.

Click here to register.

Hospice, Prison Reform and Transformational Consultant Principal Quilter and Storyteller

NHPCO

[HHAC's friend, Steven Garner (speaker at HHAC's 2023 annual conference), was invited to be the closing keynote at NHPCO's Leadership Conference held in downtown Denver, mid-September. While in Denver, Steven and HHAC Deputy Director, Matt Hansen, also conducted media interviews and lead a Q&A session with members from the Colorado Department of Corrections.]

Born in New Orleans, Steven Garner was incarcerated as a young man. Steven served 31 years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, but his personal transformation began years earlier. Upon sentencing, he was determined to change but his discovered that the prison system didn’t provide many opportunities; that is until a new Warden began a hospice program and asked for volunteers.

Steven became a Hospice Volunteer under Warden Burl Cain’s Leadership from 1995-2016.

Steven learned to quilt to raise money for the Angola Hospice Program where he served as President over the Hospice Volunteers for 24+ years. Steven has made over 1,000 quilts to support the Angola End-of-Life Care Program, helping men to depart this earth with compassion, dignity and respect.

Steven’s quilts have traveled across the United States and hang in museums such as the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. and the Historic New Orleans Collection Museum in New Orleans.

His work in hospice in corrections and his quilts have been featured by Oprah in the Serving Life documentary on Netflix and several other nationally renowned documentaries, the book Grace Before Dying by Lori Waselchuk and Lawrence N. Powell as well as many national magazines. Most recently, he was featured in Quilt Folk Magazine (Issue 28 Colorado).

Steven was released from prison in January 2022 and resides with family in Colorado Springs, CO.

Steven’s gift for storytelling and juxtaposition penetrates his keynote addresses and signature quilting style with different patterns and textiles.