Articles by WorkWise Compliance team

As part of the budget package that passed the Senate and went to the president on Friday, the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires companies with 200 or more employees to auto-enroll everyone into health insurance was repealed. The provision, however, was yet to be enforced as a final implementing rule was never published. For the full story on how the Affordable Care Ac...

Four former drivers for Amazon's Prime Now one-hour delivery service have filed suit against the Seattle company, alleging misuse of the independent contractor designation and demanding full pay and overtime privileges under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). “Amazon’s mission to deliver ‘Now’ at no additional cost to its customers is being funded by the delivery drivers,” Beth Ross, the pla...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued a proposed rule that would amend the regulations implementing Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act GINA) of 2008 as they relate to employer wellness programs. The proposed regulations address the extent to which an employer may offer an employee inducements for the employee's spouse who is also a participant i...

To keep premiums -- and expenses -- low, health insurance companies rely on what are called "narrow networks" of providers, limiting the consumer's options. Now the Harvard School of Public Health has found that 15 percent of the 135 silver plans its researchers studied did not include a single in-network specialist for at least one specialty. Such specialties include endocrinology, rheumatolo...

In a report not yet fully released, the Obama administration on Monday conceded that health care premiums for 2016 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will rise pretty much across the board. For instance, the premium for the midrange "silver plan" will rise on average 7.5 percent, while for 60 percent of all enrollees, covering all plans, there will be an average 6.3 percent increase, accordin...

After rolling it out in a few trial states, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has now completed its nationwide launch of what it is calling ACT Digital, the EEOC's Digital Charge System. In short, the system replaces paper notices and transactions with email, at least as much as possible. On its website, the EEOC explains ACT Digital in this way: "The first phase of ACT Digita...

In a long-shot gamble likely to be rejected, the Pacific Legal Foundation today filed a petition with the Supreme Court, arguing that Obamacare is unconstitutional because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) violates the Constitution's Origination Clause, which stipulates that bills "for raising revenue" begin in the House of Representatives. The petition states: "The PPACA ...

The initial version of HealthCare.gov was so defective, it slowed and hindered the launch of Obamacare in 2013. Now, several iterations and glitch fixes later, today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is launching a more user-friendly version, dubbed 3.0 by reporters attending Friday's preview. The version available today still lacks features that HHS promises will be in place w...

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced today that more than $2.2 billion in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grants was awarded in fiscal year (FY) 2015 to cities, states and local community-based organizations. This funding supports a coordinated and comprehensive system of care to ensure that more than half a million people living with and affected by HIV in the United Sta...

The Obama administration sought an immediate appeal of a judge’s ruling letting a lawsuit initiated by the House of Representatives about Affordable Care Act (ACA) funding to go forward, but was rebuffed this week when U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer ruled: “Suffice it to say, the court is not convinced that it erred” [in its initial ruling]. Thus the lawsuit over funding for subsidies un...