Articles by Girish Anand

April 10, 2014

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Obamacare Small Health Plan Caps Scrapped

As it was originally signed into law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) capped deductibles on health plans offered in the small group market at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families. Problem was, with the caps so "low," insurers threatened to raise rates sky high, so the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a one-year regulatory reprieve for 2014. Now, i...

April 10, 2014

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CMS Releases Detailed Physician Medicare Payment Data

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released data on physician payments under Medicare in 2012, the first such disclosure in the history of the government-run health care system for those 65 and older. In all, the new "data set has information for over 880,000 distinct health care providers who collectively received $77 billion in Medicare payments in 2012, under...

April 9, 2014

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IRS: Individual Mandate, Penalty Still On for 2014, But You Won't Have to Pay

An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official, testifying before the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee yesterday, said that the Obamacare individual mandate and penalty for not purchasing health insurance are still on for 2014, but... “Individuals who can’t afford to pay that [the penalty] don’t have to pay it,” said Mark Iwry, the IRS representative. The penal...

April 9, 2014

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Obama Signs Gender Equity Order for Federal Contractors

President Obama has issued an executive order aimed at creating compensation equity for men and women working for federal contractors. In doing so, the President asked the Secretary of Labor to require federal contractors to submit data on employee compensation by race and gender — which will help employers take proactive efforts to ensure fair pay for all their employees. &ldqu...

April 7, 2014

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Former Obama Press Secretary Predicts End of Employer Mandate

Former Press Secretary to President Obama Robert Gibbs has pronounced the Obamacare employer mandate dead on arrival. Delayed twice already, the Employer Shared Responsibility provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is already on life support. Gibbs thinks it will be put out of its misery soon. “I don’t think the employer mandate will go into effect...

April 7, 2014

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OSHA Seeks Commentary on Proposed CFPA Whistleblowers Protection Rule

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued an interim final rule establishing procedures and time frames for handling retaliation complaints under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). OSHA invites the public to submit comments on the interim final rule. CFPA, enacted July 21, 2010, protects employees against retaliation by entities that offer or provide c...

April 5, 2014

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Medicaid Enrollments Reach 3 Million on Marketplaces

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday announced that 3 million poor Americans had signed up for Medicaid during the first enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which ended March 31. HHS did not say how many of the 3 million were former recipients just resigning up. The current data includes people who qualify for Medicaid programs that have existed for ...

April 3, 2014

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Final Deadline for Obamacare Sign-Ups Finally Finalized

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday announced that those who started their health insurance sign-ups on HealthCare.gov but had difficulties could still enroll -- but they must do so by Tax Day, April 15, or face a non-compliance tax penalty at the end of the year. "For those in line on the 31st [of March], we encourage consumers to finish the process as ...

April 3, 2014

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Employer Violates ADA with Pre-Offer Drug Test

In a recent court case, an employer was found in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for requiring applicants to take drug tests before making a job offer. The EEOC successfully argued that the pre-offer drug tests violated the ADA because the tests constituted a “medical examination” that gathered medical information about the applicants, even if the...

March 31, 2014

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HealthCare.gov Site Goes Down on Last Day of Sign-Ups

On the last official day to sign up for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, the main federal site -- HealthCare.gov -- went down for four hours, directing visitors to a virtual waiting room or just alerting them that the site was offline for "maintenance." Normally, maintenance on the site is done by 5 a.m. EDT, but today a "software bug," a...

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About author

Girish Anand

Recent Articles

Practical articles on HR, Safety, compliance, and people operations—written for real businesses, not legal textbooks.

EEOC Rescinds Permissible Affirmative Action Guidance

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EEOC Issues New National Enforcement Plan Through 2029

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Articles by Girish Anand