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Final Health Reform Exchange Rules Flesh Out Privacy and Security Requirements

Final rules that will govern the state-based insurance exchanges created by health reform include more detailed privacy and security requirements for the exchanges themselves and participating insurers. These restrictions also will apply indirectly to agents, brokers and others involved in this process. In the rules, published March 27 (77 Fed. Reg. 18310), the U.S. Department […]

Give Your 2016 “To-Do” List a Good Spring Cleaning

Spring has sprung. The grass is green. The flowers are blooming. The trees are in full blossom. It’s that time of year again. Time for spring cleaning. Out with the old and in with the new. At least that’s my wife’s way of thinking.

An Invitation to Share Your E-Pinion With a Few (About 135,000, Actually) of Your Colleagues

How many times have you had strong feelings about something in HR that you wanted to let the profession know about? Well, here’s your chance to do it. If you’re a steady reader of this column, you know it’s usually written by BLR’s founder and publisher Bob Brady. Bob’s “e-pinions” have crisscrossed the wide world […]

Telecommuting Might Be the Answer for Workers Who Change Their Retirement Plans

by Mark Schickman Look around your workplace, and you will see baby boomers who are rethinking their retirement plans. They have had their anniversary date in 2010 circled on their calendars for a decade, they have bought their retirement condo, and they have calculated the rate of investment return that allows their retirement fund to […]

Congress Expands FMLA’s Military Family Leave Provisions

Congress has moved with surprising speed in passing legislation to expand the situations in which an employee may take military caregiver leave and qualifying exigency leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The “Supporting Military Families Act of 2009” was only introduced in the House and Senate in late July. Now it has […]

10 CA Hospitals Fined for Medical Errors

Because of serious medical mistakes at 10 California hospitals, eight patients died, an adolescent lost vision, and a tenth patient sustained severe bleeding from the nose due to medical errors, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Senate vote puts NLRB at full strength

The U.S. Senate’s July 30 vote to confirm nominees for all five seats of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) means the Board will have a full slate of confirmed members for the first time in more than a decade. Republicans Harry I. Johnson III and Philip A. Miscimarra and Democrats Kent Hirozawa and Nancy […]

HHS to Step Up HIPAA Privacy Enforcement in ‘Abject Failure’ Cases

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is refocusing its HIPAA privacy enforcement efforts on seeking monetary penalties in cases of “abject failure” to comply, the head of HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) indicated. “The majority of matters we handle are going to be resolved through education” as they have in the […]

The Heath Care Reform Summit and the Future of Reform

Days after President Barack Obama released his own health care reform proposal, he presided over a health care reform summit on Thursday that both Democrats and Republicans attended. The summit was supposed to help the parties find common ground on the issue of health care reform and allow them to discuss their views. Although the […]

Georgia: Noncompetes Become More Salvageable

by David C. Hagaman, Ford & Harrison LLP Republicans won every Georgia statewide office and picked up one congressional seat from the Democrats. The most significant vote was the passage of a constitutional measure that gives Georgia courts the right to rewrite restrictive covenants in employment agreements without striking down the entire pact. The new […]