Providing Clarity on Wage Parity Clarity for Home Care in New York

On March 1^st, 2016 home care agencies in Suffolk, Nassau, and Westchester counties will see their wage parity total compensation increase 114% to $13.22/hour. Agencies considering new ways to comply with the growing supplemental wages of the Wage Parity Act should consider Mobile Health’s Wage Parity Clarity.

Wage Parity Clarity is a health benefit program run by the occupational health provider, who specializes in pre-employment and annual exams. Every year, Mobile Health performs over 200,000 exams for home health agencies across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other Northeast states.

Subscribers to Wage Parity Clarity benefit from providing their home care workers an annual health benefit. This benefit includes and exceeds all components of New York’s annual exam requirements. This combination provides the workers with annual medical access and a full physical. These benefits allow them to stay compliant with Department of Health regulations covering home care screenings.

History of Wage Parity

The expansion of wage parity increases to Suffolk, Nassau, and Westchester counties is not necessarily news. Wage Parity increases have impacted New York City Counties (New York, Kings, Queens, Richmond, Bronx) previously where total compensation now totals $14.09/hour.

In place since 2012, the Wage Parity Act is a form of compensation to the healthcare worker. This compensation includes a combination of a living wage and supplemental or additional wages. Affected home care agencies can either pay workers the additional increase as a salary increase.  Or, they can offer added benefits, such as medical and insurance products.

Agencies who elect to provide the increase in salary form will find their contribution subject to double payroll taxation, by the employer and employee. Also, any salary increases must be included in FLSA time-and-a-half rates. Providing a medical benefit such as Mobile Health’s Wage Parity Clarity can not only improve employee health and agency compliance but also decrease payroll.

Register with Mobile Health

Currently, Mobile Health works with most Thirty Party Administrators (TPA’s), brokers, benefit consultants, and other employee benefit vendors and products. The plan is simple to administer and costs less than 10 cents per hour for most agencies.

Once registered, agencies have the option to sign up for free Auto-Scheduling. Mobile Health’s auto-scheduling feature imports the entire employee roster of an agency. The feature automatically schedules and notifies the employee of their annual appointment. Not only does this help ensure compliance, but also helps drive utilization and engagement. Users of Mobile Health’s Wage Parity Clarity regularly experience higher utilization than other medical benefit programs.

Agencies interested in learning how Mobile Health can help provide better value to their Wage Parity plans should visit the WageParityClarity website.