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Healthcare reform provisions move forward: preexisting condition exclusions

On November 20, the Obama administration announced it is moving forward with certain provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including banning insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions. The administration issued the following: A proposed rule that, beginning in 2014, prohibits health insurance companies from discriminating against individuals because of a preexisting […]

Performance Issues for FMLA-Qualified Employee Still Equal Termination

This content was originally published in April 2009. For the latest FMLA regulation changes, visit our FMLA article archives or try our practical FMLA compliance guide. An Indiana worker repeatedly exceeded her employer’s absence limit, failed to follow safety procedures, and neglected the quality control part of her job, allowing an expensive production error to […]

News Notes: New EEOC Fact Sheets Address Workplace Backlash Against Muslims And Arabs

Responding to a surge of discrimination complaints from employees of Middle-Eastern descent following the events of Sept. 11, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released two new fact sheets to answer questions about the employment of Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and Sikhs. One fact sheet is geared toward employers, the other for employees. The […]

CMS: Subsidy-seekers’ Income Will Be Verified

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded to doubts over whether health insurance exchanges (now formally referred to as “marketplaces”) would verify incomes consumers applying for health-insurance subsidies, which come in the form of: (1) advances on tax credits for premiums; and (2) reduced cost-sharing. Marketplaces will always use data from tax filings and […]

Based on Latest HHS Data, Young Adults Should Love Health Reform

Health care reform may be responsible for a rise in partisan bickering, but what is also rising is the number of young adults with health insurance — 1 million more since last year,  according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of adults between […]

Bulletin Item: EEOC Job Applicant Definition and Rule Delayed

The interagency task-force working to develop an updated definition of who is a job applicant for federal EEO recordkeeping and reporting purposes will have until Sept. 30 to complete its task. The existing definition, which has been under review for two years, fails to address the number of unsolicited job applications that employers receive over […]

New EFT Standards Issued for Health Plans Paying Claims

A mandatory uniform standard for health plans to pay claims electronically was adopted in rules issued Jan. 5 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The rules are designed to help health care providers match payments received with the “remittance advice” transactions that plans are already sending them under an existing HHS […]

Family Leave: We’re a Small Company—Are We Covered by FMLA?

We are a small California business with 14 employees. We are not supposed to be subject to FMLA, but our lawyer says we are. This is because we have FMLA eligibility information included in our handbook. But the eligibility clause clearly states that “employees who work at a location where the Company employs fewer than […]

Theft Has Its Consequences

This content was originally published in January 2000. For the latest in HR management, visit our archives or try our online compliance portal, HR.BLR.com. Catch an employee who steals, and you’ll find a person who is not very frightened at being caught. Why not? Most of these employees are convinced that the company will not […]

News Note: Federal Contractors May Need Clean Record For Three Years

Under a revised proposal by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, companies would have to certify that they are in compliance with a broad range of federal laws to contract with the federal government. This new version of a rule proposed in 1999 clarifies the existing requirement that federal contractors have a satisfactory record of “integrity […]