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Des Moines Returns to Self-funding Health Benefits After 8-year Hiatus

 Here’s a testament to the power of lower stop-loss attachment points. The City of Des Moines returned to self-funding health benefits for city employees, after an eight-year hiatus, the Des Moines Register reported today. The city council approved the move in a unanimous vote. The primary reason: Stop loss with far lower attachment point: previously […]

Another reform rule delayed, offering temporary relief for business

The administration doesn’t mind taking the occasional detour on its route to health reform implementation, it seems, perhaps because until the Supreme Court decides on the constitutionality of its “individual mandate” (oral arguments will be March 27), the fate of the law’s employer provisions has to be considered uncertain. Backpedaling also may be occurring with […]

News Notes: Contractor Responsibility Rule Revoked

The Bush administration has thrown out a Clinton-era rule governing contractor responsibility. The rule had banned the award of federal government contracts to businesses that had criminal or civil violations of federal labor and employment, safety, environmental, tax, antitrust or consumer protection laws in the preceding three years. Enforcement of the rule—which the business community […]

News Notes: Delayed Harassment Claim Thrown Out

In one of the first sexual harassment decisions in California since the U.S. Supreme Court issued new guidelines this summer (see CEA August 1998), an employee who waited almost two years before complaining about being harassed has had her case dismissed. The federal court found the employer had exercised reasonable care to prevent and remedy […]

News Notes: Proposed Raise In Limits For Retirement Accounts Moves Forward

The full Senate will soon consider a bill that would raise contribution limits for individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans. The maximum annual contribution for 401(k) plans would increase from $10,500 to $15,000. IRA limits would rise from $2,000 per year to $5,000, and “catch-up” provisions would allow workers aged 50 and older to put […]