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Feds Focus on Cost-Sharing, Preventive Services in Latest Reform FAQs

Along with newly issued health reform rules finalizing essential health benefits provisions comes a new series of FAQs from the U.S. departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury. This guidance addresses specific questions raised about the scope of reform’s cost-sharing and preventive services provisions, and provides some transition relief for large group and self-insured […]

How Would Your Talent Problems Fare if Amazon Chooses Your Area for HQ2?

*Editor’s Note: At the time of this interview, Amazon had yet to announce its new HQ2 location. However, on November 13, Amazon announced that New York City and Arlington, Virginia, will be the locations of its second headquarters. Rumors are flying about Amazon’s likely next location (or locations) for its second headquarters (HQ2). James Davis, the editor of […]

Employers Ready for New FMLA Rules?

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. According to a 2009 poll on BLR’s websites, Compensation.BLR.com and HR.BLR.com, 74% of employers said that their organization was ready to comply with the new Family and Medical Leave […]

News Notes: Mental Health Parity Rules Begin

A new federal law now in effect says that if you offer mental health benefits, they must have the same aggregate lifetime and annual limits as medical benefits. The law applies to employers with 50 or more employees. There’s an exemption for employerswho can show the parity requirements will increase their costsby more than 1%. […]

Were Employees Required to Sign Tax Refunds Over to Employer?

An employee has filed a class action lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court claiming that his employer required foreign employees to sign over their federal and state tax refund checks to the company. The lawsuit was filed by Gopi Vedachalam, a citizen of India, against Tata American International Corp., which is a U.S. subsidiary […]

Congress Moving on Federal Minimum Wage Hike

We recently reported that the U.S. House of Representatives had approved a bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 over a period of 26 months. Now, the Senate has approved similar legislation, which, unlike the House measure, would provide tax breaks to small businesses to offset the economic impact of paying a higher […]

News Notes: Few Employers Comply With Little-Known Parking Cash-Out Law

Under an obscure law, certain employers that provide free parking must give cash to workers who don’t drive to work. The law applies to employers with 50 or more employees who are located in an area that violates air quality standards and who subsidize employee parking spaces the employer doesn’t own. But a new study […]

News Notes: New Health Benefit Brochures Available

The U.S. Department of Labor has released three free brochures to help educate workers covered by employer-sponsored health plans. The brochures address topics such as how marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and divorce affect health care choices; what to do when a child is no longer dependent; how retiring or changing jobs impact coverage options; and how […]