Using $73 million in federal CARES Act funding, Gov. Ralph Northam announced earlier this month that a one-time, pre-tax payment of $1,500 will be made available to an estimated 43,500 home health care workers who provide personal care and who served Medicaid members between March 12 and June 30.

The money is being given as a form of hazard pay to those who served high-risk populations during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a release from the governor’s office stated.

“Home health care workers are often unseen, unsung and underpaid, but they do the vital work of caring for vulnerable Virginians,” said Northam. “Their jobs put them at higher risk during this pandemic, and this hazard payment is a way we can acknowledge that they put themselves in harm’s way to help others. I want to thank our home health care workers for the work they do every day to keep people healthy.”

In addition to the hazard payments, the state budget that went into effect July 1 included a 7 ...