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In other legal action over health reform’s inclusion of reproductive services as mandated benefits, one company blocked the government from forcing it to include contraception coverage in its health plan coverage. The injunction in Legatus v. Sebelius, 2012 WL 5359630 (E.D. Mich., Oct. 31, 2012) was at the request of Weingartz Supply, a for-profit outdoor […]
Religious objections to the health reform law are continuing in the courts, with the reemergence of a constitutional challenge to the reform law (the second such challenge that might reach the U.S. Supreme Court). Gov’t Drops Opposition In this brief, the Obama administration told the U.S. Supreme Court it will not try to block Liberty […]
The PDA applies regardless of how long an employee has worked for you. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), however, has stricter eligibility requirements but also offer more potential benefits. For example, the FMLA applies to new fathers as well as mothers. To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have worked for […]
Are California employers required to implement a paid time off (PTO) policy? It may seem so, since paid-time-off banks (as opposed to sick leave banks) are becoming increasingly popular. It may be surprising to learn that California law doesn’t actually require employers to provide PTO, vacation, sick time (with limited exceptions), or even paid holidays.
“All pregnant employees should stop work 30 days before their due dates.” “Pregnant women should stay out 6 weeks after the birth.” “I’m not hiring a pregnant applicant—she’ll just go on leave the day I get her trained.” “Pregnant women shouldn’t be working after the baby comes.” These ideas are out there, but they’re all […]
Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, is getting in on the concept of “Centers of excellence,” a method of steering referrals to providers who perform more efficiently in a bid to bend the health cost curve. With the generous coverage, the company creates good press and may counter its reputation as being skimpy on workers’ benefits. […]
A former senior account manager has filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the National Basketball Association, Inc., alleging that the NBA “pays lip service to gender equality” and is “openly hostile to working mothers.” In the lawsuit, Brynn Cohn claims that the NBA instituted a change in work schedule while she was on maternity leave […]
Health plans and insurers long have been thinking of ways to compensate providers not for volume of care, but for value of care, as an important tool in curbing runaway health inflation. Research over the last two decades recently compiled and reviewed by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality shows consistent reductions in what […]
With an ever-increasing number of private-sector retirement plan participants relying on automatic enrollment and the investment choices their employers select, the best way for plan sponsors to help these workers achieve a secure retirement is to choose and manage their default options well, a new survey suggests. The defined contribution investments unit of money manager […]
Eye on the Election For today’s topic—likely changes to health care reform after the election—we turned to BLR legal editor Jessica Webb-Ayer, J.D., editor of the Benefits Compliance Advisor online newsletter and the benefits manual Benefits Compliance: Strategies for Plans, Programs & Policies. Although health care reform (also known as the Affordable Care Act or […]