While healthcare workers, like you, are working to keep patients out of hospitals, you might wonder about the liability to the office for staying open. As an essential worker, you may stay open. If you are OPEN, be sure to follow the OSHA and CDC guidance and document the steps you are taking to maintain a healthy and clean work environment:
From the April 8 ACA Connects: The Immediate Relief for Rural Facilities and Providers Act has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 6365) and Senate (S. 3559) to address the ongoing crisis facing the U.S. healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic. As hospitals, clinics and providers across the country face increasing strain, this legislation would extend a financial lifeline with grant and low-interest loan opportunities to rural hospitals and providers, including chiropractors, and ensure that they are able to continue providing care to the millions of Americans who depend on them. Take Action...
In case you missed our April 1, 2020, Bulletin and article by labor and employment lawyer and FCA speaker Dena Sokolow regarding the posting requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, we send this reminder for your compliance with the FFCRA posting requirements. Read on for access to an important sample notice.
COVID-19 RESOURCE CENTER FOR CHIROPRACTORS
Our Community Is Responding
The COVID-19 material produced on a daily basis is overwhelming. Much of the information is not applicable to your lives or offices and it comes on all topics, from all sources. The FCA has combined the resources from our strategic partners, law firms, and government websites, to bring you over 80 Resources, broken down by topic, to help you better navigate through these rough waters.
The FCA has been here since 1931 to serve you and we continue to serve during these unprecedented times. We encourage you to stay attuned to your email inbox and visit fcachiro.org and other websites you trust to stay informed. The FCA team will remain at work and accessible to members throughout this challenge. It is a privilege to support you as you in turn help hundreds of thousands of Floridians to move through their challenges in the healthiest possible way.
Enjoy and please make use of the NEW FCA COVID-19 RESOURCE CENTER!
Just this afternoon, Governor DeSantis issued a 34-page Executive Order 20-91, in furtherance of reducing the spread of COVID-19. In that Order, the Governor limits conduct and services to “Essential services” as delineated in the March 28, 2020, list detailed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in its Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce (see page 5). The FCA reported on this CISA Order on March 31, 2020. Because CISA was specific in including Chiropractic Physicians as “essential healthcare workers,” chiropractors in Florida can continue to conduct business as it has been, following necessary safety protocols. As we continue to state, this is a personal choice, yet one that supports the profession along with other physician groups as essential healthcare workers.
On March 18, 2020, President Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) to respond to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, FFCRA establishes and requires Emergency Paid Sick Leave and expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for certain employees. Covered employers with less than 500 employees are required to provide employees with paid sick leave or paid family and medical leave for qualifying reasons related to the coronavirus (COVID-19). FFCRA also provides a tax credit to employers to mitigate the costs of providing the required leave. The Act becomes effective tomorrow, April 1, 2020 and remains in effect through December 31, 2020.
From an ACA Release of March 31, 2020 - Arlington, Va. - Doctors of chiropractic are part of the essential critical infrastructure workforce, according to an advisory memorandum released on March 28 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The memo aims to give state, local, tribal and territorial governments guidance as they consider what actions to take in their communities to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) while still maintaining critical industries and the workers who support them.
The past three weeks have been incredible and we want to salute the many in the chiropractic community who have leveraged their infrastructure and resources to provide helpful information for individual decision-making throughout this time of daily, constant change. The FCA has been hard at work providing resources directly to members through e-bulletins while posting more resources daily on fcachiro.org for public access, so that members and non-members alike can take advantage of the information.
Simultaneously, the FCA staff, legal and lobby teams have been working to advocate the status of chiropractic as an essential service with the Governor and state entities that will be issuing and interpreting Florida orders and regulations in the days ahead. Read on to access links to important opinions and guidelines affirming this status, which provides the freedom for you to continue to see patients if it is your personal decision to do so, and while following guidelines for safety.
Here is a master list of the many COVID-19 Resources posted here on fcachiro.org, listed in chronological order, with the most recent at the top. Click on the your title of choice below to access the full web post.