The Home Health company I work for is writing us up for overtime hours. We have been requested to document 8 hours per day and to document less hours on our time sheets than we are really working. We are to falsify how many hours we are truly working at pt's bedsides and charting. We are also being asked to write down lunch times, although we do not take lunches 75% of the time. We have been intimidated and threatened with firing if we do not do this. We are working approximately 9-10 hours a day and being paid for 8. Do we have any recourse without fearing retribution?

If you are being told to falsify your timesheets and therefore are not being paid for all the hours that you work, your recourse is to contact your State's Department of Labor and file a complaint. (I'm also wondering if the agency's bills to insurance companies, Medicare, and such are also being falsified, although in those circumstances, they'd want to inflate the billable time, not reduce it. You may want to contact the appropriate regulatory agency as well.)

And, if you aren't already, keep a record of all your work hours, in detail, including meal periods not taken, at home.

Your home healthcare agency hopefully has a compliance officer. Contact them too. Most healthcare entities that have compliance programs also have internal policies protecting whistleblowers from any retaliation from management. That's in addition to what protections your state provides.

If your agency bills Medicare/Medicaid, you can also contact the Office of the Inspector General in the US Dept of Health & Human Services. Here's a link:

http://oig.hhs.gov/hotline.html

Phone:
1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477)


You can mention that since the agency is falsifying time sheets and violating wage & hour laws, you also have concerns about how they bill for services.

Home health care has been a big target lately, since there is so much opportunity for fraud. See what the hotline people say.

Thanks for the link. It will come in handy.