Employee Benefits Archives - Page 31 of 149

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022: Healthcare Provisions

by McDermott Will & Emery | Sep 9, 2022 | Benefit Controversies, Digital Health, Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

After almost a year of negotiations among congressional Democrats and the White House, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) was signed into law by President Biden on August 16, 2022. It passed in the US Senate by a vote of 50–50, with the vice president breaking the tie, on August 7, 2022. The bill passed the US House of Representatives August 12, 2022, by a party-line vote of 220-207. This McDermott+Consulting article summarizes the key healthcare provisions of the IRA, including prescription drug reform, inflationary rebates, a cap on insulin costs, a Medicare Part D benefit redesign and a new pharmacy benefit manager rebate rule.

Read more here.

Responsible Financial Innovation Act: Proposed Tax and Reporting for Digital Assets

by John Lutz, William R. Pomierski, Andrew Granek and McDermott Will & Emery | Sep 8, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Retirement Plans

On June 7, 2022, Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the highly anticipated Responsible Financial Innovation Act (the bill), which sets out to create the first complete regulatory and bipartisan framework for digital assets. The bill is intended to establish some legal clarity for regulators and the industry and to protect consumers by providing a range of disclosures and clarifying settlement conditions and rights over digital ownership. The bill would also treat all digital assets that are not treated as securities as commodities regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This article discusses key tax considerations raised by the bill concerning taxation and reporting requirements for participants in the digital asset industry.

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What You Should Be Telling Workers About Monkeypox

by Michelle S. Strowhiro | Sep 7, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Health and Welfare Plans

What should employers be telling workers about monkeypox? In this Fortune article, McDermott Partner Michelle Strowhiro said the first thing is to make sure workers properly understand the signs and symptoms of the viral disease.

“Now’s the time to evolve [your] COVID-19 policy into a greater safety policy that includes monkeypox, and covers the symptoms of monkeypox and protocols of what to do if you have symptoms or test positive,” Strowhiro said.

Access the article.

How Does the FMLA Apply to a Remote Workforce?

by Brian Mead and Dawn Peacock | Sep 6, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Labor

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted in 1993, a year when the idea of working a corporate job from a living room was rare. When the law was passed, the FMLA didn’t contemplate a remote workforce. Now, and especially post-pandemic, many companies are embracing a fully remote workforce (e.g., sales representatives, healthcare medical device technicians and software engineers). While employees’ needs for a leave of absence have always been around, remote employment and its effects on the applicability of the FMLA requirements has not. For well over two years, many employees have been working from home. Some report to a manager at the headquarters or worksite. Plenty of remote employees, however, report to an individual who also works remotely. The new remote landscape is making what used to be an easy application of FMLA eligibility into a difficult analysis. This article examines the FMLA regulatory framework for remote employees, a recent Texas federal court decision on the issue and the practical options that employers have moving forward.

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Texas Abortion-related Litigation ‘just getting started’

by Caroline Reignley | Sep 2, 2022 | Benefit Controversies, Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

It was a busy end of August for abortion-related litigation in Texas. Multiple pro-reproductive justice nonprofit groups sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other prosecutors to protect the ability of pregnant Texans to obtain abortions in outside states, and Texas’ new trigger ban law went into effect. In this MedCity News article, McDermott Partner Caroline Reignley notes how the US Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision “did not end the debate over abortion or limit court intervention.”

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Want to Provide Abortion Travel Benefits at Your Company? Here’s How to Protect Employees

by Sarah Raaii | Sep 1, 2022 | Benefit Controversies, Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

How can companies provide abortion travel benefits to their workers without disclosing sensitive medical information? In this Corporate Counsel article, McDermott’s Sarah Raaii provides insight into how the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) offer protections for workers seeking reproductive healthcare services.

“The most common way that we’ve seen employers offering these abortion benefits is to include them in their existing ERISA health plans, in which case they [the plans] would be subject to HIPAA,” Raaii said.

Access the article.

CDC Updates Its COVID-19 Guidelines: What Does It Mean for Your Business?

by Lindsay Ditlow, Michelle S. Strowhiro, Abigail M. Kagan and Melis Solaksubasi | Aug 31, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

On August 11, 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) unveiled its updated COVID-19 guidelines, revising both quarantine and isolation guidelines in the process. The updates reflect the growing number of vaccinated individuals (meaning, those individuals who have received initial doses and all recommended boosters) and past exposures, leading to a greater level of herd immunity than in previous eras of the virus. These adjustments to the CDC’s guidance also serve, in large part, to clarify existing recommendations or to loosen restrictions. This article provides a closer look at what exactly the updated guidance requires and how to best approach these updates in the workplace.

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State Law Privacy Video Series | Employee Exemptions

by Fran P. Forte | Aug 30, 2022 | Employee Benefits, Employment, Privacy and Data Security

California, Virginia and Colorado have new privacy laws coming into effect in 2023. But now is the time to start preparing your business or organization for compliance. Throughout the State Law Privacy video series, we examine the different aspects of these laws and provide you the knowledge and tools you need for proper compliance.

In the next video of the series, Associate Fran Forte explores one of the notable exemptions under California’s law as it relates to employee data and how employee data is handled under Virginia and Colorado’s privacy laws.

Watch here.

A Practical Guide to Conducting a HIPAA Security Risk Analysis

by Ryan S. Higgins | Aug 23, 2022 | Benefit Controversies, Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

How do organizations go about conducting a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security risk analysis (HRSA)? In this Health Law Weekly article, McDermott Partner Ryan S. Higgins provides a step-by-step guide to conducting an HRSA and offers practical guidance to address the key issues effectively.

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What Should GCs Know About the Abortion Landscape?

by Sarah Raaii | Aug 19, 2022 | Benefit Controversies, Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

What should company general counsels (GCs) know about abortion trigger bans, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and how not to break the law in light of the new abortion landscape in the United States? In this MedCity News article, McDermott’s Sarah Raaii offers insight into how companies can protect abortion access for workers.

“One thing that GCs and employers should do is closely track any new state developments in a state you have business interests in,” Raaii said. “And if you have employees all over, unfortunately that could mean keeping track of 50 different states laws because it’s as simple as ‘this state does or doesn’t prohibit abortion,’ there’s different levels of protection.”

Access the article.

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