State laws vary on whether employers must provide current and former employees with access to their personnel records and, if so, what information is included within those records.
The new regulations (published June 13, 2019) preserve preceding exceptions from the ACA prohibition on annual dollar limits and create two more: (1) an excepted benefit HRA and (2) an individual coverage HRA.
Oregon recently enacted the Workplace Protection Act (WPA) to restrict the use of nondisclosure agreements in circumstances alleging employment discrimination and mandating the employers adopt written anti-discrimination policies.
For those clients with foreign national workers who may have plans to travel abroad this summer, this brief advisory provides some basic guidance and reminders for international travel.
Texas House Bill 4390 tightens the notification requirements related to a breach of sensitive personal information, requires notification to the Texas Attorney General in certain breaches, and creates an advisory council related to privacy issues.
On May 30, 2019, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $5 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by male employees who requested paternity leave under company policy and were granted less leave than their female counterparts.
Last week Nevada amended its law that governs online privacy policy disclosures to now give Nevada residents the right to opt out of the sale of certain personal information.
Ohio’s health care industry will soon take on significant new obligations with respect to the management of hazardous pharmaceutical waste, pursuant to a federal rule being implemented by Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Earlier this month, New Jersey joined a growing list of states which require companies to provide notification under their respective data breach laws where non-traditional personal informational is compromised.
On May 17, 2019, the White House issued a Presidential Proclamation on imports of passenger vehicles (sedans, sport utility vehicles, crossover utility vehicles, minivans, and cargo vans) and light trucks and certain automobile parts (engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain parts, and electrical components).
As expected, the Supreme Court has just resolved a circuit split over the statute of limitations for non-intervened False Claims Act cases by maximizing the time a relator has to file a complaint. The decision in Cochise Consultancy, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Hunt, No. 18-315 (May 13, 2019) will greatly expand a defendant’s time frame for potential FCA liability and lead to more cases involving faded recollections, costly document recovery, and potential damages for decades-old alleged fraud.
On April 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a notification of enforcement discretion in the Federal Register revising the maximum annual penalty amounts for breaches under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
On April 25, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia accepted a proposal from the EEOC that will require employers who are covered by the EEO-1 reporting requirements to submit supplemental data on employees’ pay segmented by sex, race, and ethnicity by September 30.
In 1990, Congress enacted the Federal Debt Collection and Procedures Act. One feature of that law allows a federal court to issue a “writ of continuing garnishment” to access a convicted participant’s retirement plan benefits to satisfy a restitution order entered as part of the participant’s criminal sentencing.
HR professionals know that conducting timely and effective internal investigations is vital in order for the company to make better decisions when facing contentious allegations.
On April 9, 2019, federal jurors in the Northern District of Texas returned a guilty verdict against seven doctors, surgeons, and health care executives accused of participating in a $200 million bribery and kickback scheme at Forest Park Medical Center (FPMC), a physician-owned hospital in Dallas.
On April 12, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued an interpretative statement concluding that all releases of pollutants from a point source to groundwater are excluded from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program pursuant to Sections 301 and 402 of the Clean Water Act (Act). USEPA’s interpretative statement clarified that such discharges are excluded from NPDES permit requirements even where pollutants are conveyed to jurisdictional surface waters via groundwater.
On March 13, 2019, the City of Cincinnati joined a growing number of states and municipalities that have passed laws prohibiting employers from inquiring into a job applicant’s salary history.
