Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.
By Jane Meacham The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on July 11 issued a notice of proposed revisions and other guidance outlining several changes to Form 5500 aimed at keeping annual reporting by employee benefit plans in line with technical, legal, and regulatory changes.
Advocate Health Care Network (Advocate) has agreed to pay $5.55 million to settle with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), multiple potential Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) violations involving electronic protected health information (ePHI). This is the largest HIPAA settlement to date against a single entity.
By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor A 2014 rule restricting the sale of fixed indemnity coverage was struck down by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had exceeded its authority under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Not every job in America is as lavish as the C-suite. Some jobs force workers to get down and dirty, or even put employees lives at risk. These jobs are the backbone of the United States, and as Mike Rowe—of the hit televisions show Dirty Jobs—would say, “Someone has to do it!” In honor of […]
The dates when group health plans should begin using the most recently revised summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) template were clarified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in a July 8 Q&A document.
By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor The month of July saw two hospitals reach multimillion-dollar Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security settlements with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Each case began with that most mundane of data breaches, the stolen laptop, but once HHS investigators started […]
By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor Maximum penalties for violating many employment and benefits laws were increased, some of them substantially, by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in a departmentwide rule published July 1 (81 Fed. Reg. 43429).
By Jennifer Carsen, JD, Senior Legal Editor So, you think you’ve got a pretty good handle on this whole Affordable Care Act (ACA) thing. You know that you’re an applicable large employer (or ALE—and that “ALE” isn’t merely that thing you want to drink a lot of after a day of filling out ACA paperwork).
Setting appropriate employee goals is an important component of keeping the workforce productive and motivated. It can also affect retention since clear expectations are a critical component of employee satisfaction levels. And organizations that opt to implement pay-for-performance programs have an added layer of accountability by putting a piece of the employee’s compensation on the […]
Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been handling payroll for years, Joe Sharpe urges you to heed this warning: Be careful. It isn’t that Sharpe, who prefers the title “Payroll Czar” at his firm Sharp Payroll, Inc., doesn’t trust your abilities, your education, or your dedication to the job. Rather, it’s just that people […]