As the results of the November 2016 election confirmed, there is a growing push throughout the country to require employers to provide certain types of paid leave to their employees. To date, we have witnessed the imposition of paid leave requirements through ballot initiatives, legislation, and executive orders. The most popular forms of paid leave
Employee Benefits
The Upper Midwest Continues to Fill the Gap Between the East and West Coasts on Paid Sick Leave
Since Connecticut’s 2011 passage of the first law requiring employers to issue paid sick leave benefits, over 30 states, counties, and cities — mostly on the East and West coasts — have enacted similar statues. These include Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Vermont, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, and Philadelphia. Chicago and Minneapolis have also passed…
EEOC Issues Final Rules and Sample Notice for Wellness Programs
Many employers have turned to employee wellness programs to curtail rising health care costs and improve productivity. These wellness programs typically involve health screenings and/or services to aid in reducing health risks (e.g. tobacco use, blood pressure), often coupled with financial incentives for the employee’s participation.
Over the past few years, the Equal Employment Opportunity…
Supreme Court Expands the Duty of Prudence
In what is undoubtedly a victory for beneficiaries of ERISA-regulated plans, the United States Supreme Court enlarged the duty of prudence owed by plan fiduciaries to plan beneficiaries and also broadened the statute of limitations applicable to claims alleging a breach of this duty in Timble v. Edison International, 575 U.S. ___ (2015). While…
Supreme Court Expands Employers’ Right to Modify Medical Benefits for Union Retirees
On January 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court published M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett, 574 U.S. ___ (2015); 2015 U.S. LEXIS 759 (Jan. 26, 2015), addressing a long-standing issue concerning retiree medical benefits that has plagued employers of unionized facilities for over thirty years. The M&G Polymers Court reviewed a case from the…
ObamaCare Minimum Medical Loss Ratio Refunds Announced
Amid the ObamaCare Supreme Court decision watch, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the initial calculations of medical loss ratios (MLR) for the nation’s insurance companies. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, insurers must spend at least 85% of their premium income on paying benefits (80% in the individual and small…
Skyrocketing Healthcare Costs Continue to Threaten Healthcare Markets
This post was coauthored by Inna Shelley.
Princeton economics professor, Uwe E. Reinhardt, recently posted an interesting article on the New York Times “Economix” blog entitled “The Fork in the Road for Health Care.” The post discusses the seeming inevitability of healthcare rationing and attributes rising healthcare costs under employer-provided health policies to rising healthcare…