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Rules for QHP Transparency Soon Will Apply to Employers

Insurers and plan sponsors soon will have to report to the government (and list on a web page) their policies on: out-of-network liability and balance billing; enrollee claim submission; claims and denials; recoupment of overpayments; medical necessity; prior authorization; drug exception timeframes; explanations of benefits; and coordination of benefits. Guidance HHS published on Aug. 12 […]

Overtime Changes Are Coming: Tips on How to Prepare

Unless you have been vacationing on an Internet and news free island, you know that the U.S. Department of Labor has proposed an overtime regulation overhaul that would increase the salary level an employee must meet to be considered exempt from overtime pay from $455 per week to $970 per week in 2016 (based on […]

Better an addict than a thief: disciplining drug- and alcohol-dependent employees

By Jennifer M. Shepherd and Hannah Roskey It’s well established that discrimination against an employee on the basis of a physical or mental disability is prohibited in Canada. Drug or alcohol addictions constitute a “disability” under most human rights legislation such that employers are prohibited from discriminating against employees on the basis of their addictions. […]

Congress Limits ‘Substantial Cessation of Operations’ Liability

Congress has come to the aid of single-employer defined benefit retirement plans concerned about the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s power to assert liability on them when changing business operations affect their plan participants. As part of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (within the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2015, known as […]

Census Data Supports Telecommuting as a Reasonable Accommodation Under ADA

Using home as a “reasonable accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act, approximately 316,000 disabled employees regularly work from home, according to TeleworkResearchNetwork.com data. Those whom ADA protects join more than 13 million U.S. residents who currently work from home at least one day a week, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released last […]

Firm Continues to Earn Accolades for Its Commitment to Learning

Late last year, PwC (www.pwc.com/us) received three coveted Brandon Hall Excellence Awards. The firm earned the following bronze awards: Best Custom Content and Best Use of Video for Learning for its “Finding Black and White in Shades of Grey” course, which promotes a respectful work environment, and Best Onboarding Program for its “101: PwC Internship […]

Train Workers on How to Respond to Active Shooters in the Workplace

In 2013, two nurses at a Milwaukee hospital heard gunshots. Instead of taking cover, they ran toward the gunfire. Only when they spotted the armed man running at them did they turn and flee. A police officer cornered the gunman and restrained him with pepper spray. The gunman screamed: “I can’t see! I can’t see!” […]

Arbitration: then (in a Michael Crichton novel) and now

The late Michael Crichton had an interesting contrarian streak for a popular fiction novelist. In one of his last novels, State of Fear, he stuck his thumb in the eye of the global warming/climate change “consensus” (it remains the only novel I remember reading that had footnotes).  Readers saw his contrarian streak a decade earlier, […]