Expert Compliance Insights & Tips for Businesses

December 4, 2013

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HealthCare.gov Enrolls 29,000 in 48 Hours After 'Fix'

According to a report on CNBC.com, the revamped HealthCare.gov site enrolled 29,000 persons in the first two days of operations after announcing a round of fixes. This is in stark contrast to the 26,000 who enrolled during the entire rollout month of October, when the site was bug-ridden and unwieldy. "Data still being scrubbed, but looks like we will be 29,000 for enrollment in fede...

December 4, 2013

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5th Circuit Court Strikes Down NLRB's Arbitration Clause Ban

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, has struck down the ban against employment arbitration clause collective-action restraints by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The January 2012 opinion by the NLRB ruled that employment arbitration clauses were unenforceable if they precluded employees from filing class or collective claims in ...

December 3, 2013

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Lawsuits Challenge Legality of Obamacare Federal Subsidies and Penalties

Oklahoma was the first state to issue a legal challenge, but it was soon followed by Indiana and then by individuals and businesses in Virginia and the District of Columbia. At issue is the wording of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which states in section 1311 that health insurance subsidies are available only if policies are purchased through state insurance exchanges set up under the A...

December 2, 2013

28 view(s)

N.J. Social Media Privacy Act Becomes Law

New Jersey's Social Media Privacy Law took effect yesterday, prohibiting employers in the state from requiring applicants or employees to disclose their personal social media usernames and passwords or to provide access to their personal social media accounts. The law also has a strong anti-retaliation provision to prevent employers from pressuring employees or applicants into waiving...

December 2, 2013

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Federal Agencies Issue Regulatory Agendas

Quietly just before the Thanksgiving holiday, federal agencies released their upcoming regulatory agendas as required by law. Among the highlights: The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued or will issue in the next few months 24 regulations that will help implement its Plan/Prevent/Protect program, which shifts "the burden of ensuring compliance from the Department - which cannot ...

December 1, 2013

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HHS Declares Health Care Site 'Fixed'

The Obama administration claimed today that its troubled HealthCare.gov site has been "fixed" and can handle up to 50,000 visitors at a time, the original goal for the site when it was launched Oct. 1. In a rare Sunday morning press call, Health and Human Services (HHS) officials said the redone site is capable of handling "in the zone of 80 percent" of all users. The ...

November 27, 2013

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CMS to Seek Public Input on Obamacare Fine-Tuning

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is publishing a 254-page packet of draft regulations in the Federal Register on Monday, with public commentary due no later than 30 days thereafter on the Obamacare issues it addresses. The omnibus package deals with Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) provisions, including risk-management program fees, Small Business Hea...

November 26, 2013

39 view(s)

SeaTac $15 Minimum Wage Wins on Ballots, But Recount Possible

Both sides foresaw a potential recount of balloting for SeaTac Proposition 1, which would raise the small city's airport-related hospitality and transportation workers' salaries to a minimum of $15 an hour. On Monday after three weeks of counting votes, the proposition was leading by 76 votes, and King County officials were expected to certify the results today. As of Friday, ...

November 25, 2013

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DOL Launches Online Work-Sharing Resource

The Department of Labor has launched a new online resource that provides guidance and information to states interested in developing or improving short-time compensation programs, also known as work-sharing. The STC program is designed to avert employee layoffs for businesses faced with a temporary slowdown in business activity. The online resources, which will be available to state workforce...

November 25, 2013

41 view(s)

White Hat Hacker Says HealthCare.gov Completely Insecure

A professional Internet security expert, aka a "white hat hacker," claims that it will take a year to fix the security flaws in the federal Obamacare website. David Kennedy, chief executive of TrustedSec, testified about the flaws in HealthCare.gov before Congress last week, and this morning appeared on CNBC to convey the same message. "When you develop a website, you d...

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