HomeCare Editors’ Top 5: Week of November 16

New Bills Would Reinstate Old Home Care Wage Rules
Legislation aimed at restoring overtime exemptions for home care workers has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, just days before the Department of Labor is slated to actively enforce a rule extending federal minimum wage and overtime protections to such employees. (Kourtney Liepelt/Home Healthcare News)

Nationwide Public Housing Smoking Ban
Smoking would be prohibited in public housing homes nationwide under a proposed federal rule announced on Thursday, a move that would affect nearly one million households and open the latest front in the long-running campaign to curb unwanted exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. (Mireya Navarro/New York Times)

U.S. Democrats Discuss Fix to “Cadillac Tax”
U.S. Democratic lawmakers are discussing proposing changes to the “Cadillac tax,” a levy on high-cost employer-based healthcare plans passed as part of President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat said on Tuesday. (Susan Cornwall/Reuters)

Who Can Identify Elder Abuse?
Elder abuse, which can take the form of sexual or emotional abuse, physical violence and even financial manipulation, affects at least 10 percent of older Americans, according to a review article in the Nov. 12 New England Journal of Medicine. (Shefali Luthra/Kaiser Health News)

Home Care Workers Sue Over Unionization
Some Illinois home care workers have sued state officials for forcing them to be represented by the Service Employees International Union, even after the Supreme Court previously ruled that in-home care providers shouldn’t be compelled to pay union dues. (Kourtney Liepelt/Home Health Care News)