HCAOA The Voice Fall 2020

20 HCAOA The Voice PUBLIC POLICY Florida opens Long-Term Care to Home Care Workers, Shifts to Federal Testing Standards In Florida, Governor DeSantis issued an emergency order adjusting visitation rules for long-term care facilities related to COVID-19. The order includes home care workers in its definition of Essential Caregivers that are allowed to enter long-term care facilities. Enforcement of PPE and infection control policies is the responsi - bility of the facility, as are all testing protocols. The order further states that all tests should follow CDC and FDA guidelines. The order largely follows the final recommendations from The Task Force on the Safe and Limited Re-Opening of Long-Term Care Facilities. In addition to the Essential Caregiver definition, the recommenda - tions also require that Essential Caregivers wear PPE “consistent with CDC Guidance” and comply with facility-provided testing protocols. In addition, the Emergency Rules requiring biweekly staff testing for nursing homes and assisted living facilities expired on Septem - ber 13. Nursing home staff are required to continue staff testing under federal regulations. Information about the federal rule can be found here. Illinois Department of Public Health Issues Emergency Rule on Mask Requirement The Illinois Department of Public Health (IPDH) will hold busi - nesses and organizations accountable if they don’t enforce social distancing and mask mandates. The IDPH amended its Control of Communicable Disease Code with emergency provisions for pandemic or epidemic respiratory disease and outlined enforce - ment procedures against violators of the emergency rules. Anyone over the age of two who is medically able to tolerate it must wear a mask or cloth face covering over their noses and mouths when in a public place and unable to maintain at least a six-foot distance from others. The requirement applies outdoors as well as indoors. All local boards of health, health authorities and officers, police officers, sheriffs, and all other officers and employees of the state are required to enforce the orders issued by IDPH, the emergency amendment says. Businesses shall be given a written notice of non-compliance and a reasonable opportunity to comply upon first violation of Health Department rules. If the offending business does not comply after the first notice, the enforcing agency may issue a written order to disperse and clear the property. Click here for details about the changes to the public health code. Ohio and Georgia Enact Liability Shield Laws Related to COVID-19 Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a liability shield law, which protects health care providers from lawsuits related to “injury, death, or loss to property or person caused by exposure to, the transmission of, or contraction of COVID-19 or any mutation thereof,” except in the case of reckless, intentional or willful transmission. This laws to claims arising between March 9, 2020, and September 30, 2021. The law also prohibits COVID-related class action suits against care providers, and prevents future laws or public orders from forcing providers to deliver care to infected patients. In Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp signed legislation that provides limited protections to businesses from COVID-19 related suits. While Georgia Chapter worked with the law’s sponsors to specifi - cally name home care workers in the delineated classes covered by the legislation, it was determined they were covered in the general business provisions of the bill. “HCAOA Members have pushed hard for key protections for frontline workers—over the Summer 2,000 members sent over 5,000 messages to their Senators and Representatives demanding things like increased access to PPE, hazard pay, and expanded protections for home-based community services like home care.”