This bill establishes regional minimum hourly payment rates that Medicaid must reimburse home care providers for services delivered to Medicaid patients. It directly affects home care agencies and providers employing aides covered by minimum wage laws, requiring rates to cover all direct care costs - including base wages, overtime, benefits, taxes, and mandated programs like COVID-19 sick pay. The commissioner must set these rates regionally based on cost factors, adjust them annually for labor law changes, and publish them publicly. Oversight includes comptroller reviews of managed care contracts to ensure rates meet the minimum standards.
Creates a temporary commission to conduct a comprehensive study on the current utilization of paid family leave, make recommendations on how to increase access and the visibility of the program.
Requires employers to provide notice of insurance requirements for injured employees to such employees in their native language; requires employers to provide notice of how to file a claim to injured workers; establishes a penalty for failure to comply with such notice requirements.
Includes certain persons engaged in a professional or teaching capacity in or for a religious, charitable or educational institution as employees for purposes of eligibility for paid family leave.
S 5261 increases the maximum amount of the child and dependent care tax credit for families with children or other dependents to keep pace with rising childcare costs. Starting in 2025, the credit caps rise to $7,500 for three dependents (up to $9,000 for five or more), and for 2026, the limits adjust further (e.g., $18,000 for five or more dependents). The bill updates annual dollar limits based on the number of qualifying individuals, ensuring the credit reflects current expenses. It directly affects taxpayers claiming this credit on their federal tax returns.
Requires a business entity in violation of worker protection or environmental laws and regulations to surrender all previous state subsidies issued to such business entity.
Adds home care visits to existing provisions of law prohibiting health care employers from requiring a nurse to work more than such nurse's regularly scheduled work hours, including regularly scheduled home care visits.
This bill expands New York's paid family leave program to include bereavement leave for employees experiencing fetal death, stillbirth, or an infant declared medically not viable to survive. It amends workers' compensation law to explicitly add these circumstances as qualifying reasons for leave under the "bereavement" provision, requiring employees to provide a fetal death certificate, stillbirth certificate, or death certificate as proof. The policy applies to all eligible employees covered under the state's paid family leave system, effective January 1, 2025. It does not create new benefits but extends existing leave protections to these specific pregnancy-related losses.
Requires employers to notify employees if they come into contact with other employees who have been diagnosed in relation to a disease outbreak causing a public health emergency; prohibits employers from disclosing the name of the diagnosed employee.
Expands the scope of duties for public employers to prevent workplace violence including additional training, the creation of incident logs, expanding inspections and providing the commissioner the ability to enforce such provisions to prevent workplace violence.
