Executive Order 2001-03, April 20, 2011). It also prohibits state agencies from assisting federal agencies in implementing the law. While the executive order bars the state from carrying out any part of the federal Affordable Care Act, it does allow state agencies to continue developing a state health insurance exchange.
Read More…Surprisingly, an employer’s wellness program that penalized employees $20 per paycheck if they did not submit to a health questionnaire and biometric screening was not in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to a recent decision by a federal district court in Florida (Seff v. Broward County, SD…
Read More…H.R. 1473, P.L. 112-10). This provision was set to take effect on January 1, 2014 and was intended to make exchange coverage affordable for employees with low incomes who were not eligible for federal income-based assistance. It remains to be seen how this development will affect employers’ strategies for addressing health reforms in…
Read More…Frequently Asked Questions” about the federal health care reform law known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), focusing on issues of how plans lose grandfathered status. Key points include guidance on the anti-abuse provisions of the grandfathering rules—specifically, what is a “bona fide employment-based reason” for transferring employees from one grandfathered plan to another, such…
Read More…76 Fed Reg 65, April 5, 2011). Under the program, the federal government has made available $5 billion to reimburse early retiree medical plans for up to 80 percent of claims between $15,000 and $90,000. Based on the rate at which the available funding is being disbursed, the Centers for…
Read More…If the courts take the same approach as the EEOC did in this case, it will be a huge relief for employers. One question that was left unanswered, though, is what happens when there is a significant gap in time between an employee’s last date of employment, and the date of…
Read More…Although last year’s health care reform law made coverage available to employees’ adult children up to age 26, and provided a federal income tax exclusion for the coverage, California employers should be aware that California’s tax law does not provide such an exclusion from income for adult child coverage. If passed by the…
Read More…HR 2, titled “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” and many other proposed bills. But regardless of the volume of legislative activity devoted to opposing health care reform, most experts agree that if our legislators have anything to say about it, health care reform is here to stay. The Democratic-controlled Senate is…
Read More…IRS Notice 2011-5).The new guidance modifies previous IRS guidance and allows FSA and HRA debit cards to be used to purchase OTC medicines or drugs at non-health care merchants that have pharmacies, and at mail order and web-based vendors that sell prescription drugs, as long as certain conditions are met.…
Read More…The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently promised to issue guidance about automatic enrollment in employer-sponsored health plans—sometime in the next three years. Automatic enrollment is a mandate imposed by last year’s health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The mandate will apply to employers of 200 or…
Read More…