Articles by Girish Anand

December 27, 2013

23 view(s)

Think HealthCare.gov Has Problems? Oregon's Site Still Doesn't Work

Almost three months after the Oregon Health Care Marketplace was supposed to go live, the website still isn't working, and state officials have pulled all Obamacare advertising from the airways. An estimated 36,000 Oregonians have thus far enrolled through Cover Oregon, including about 12,000 in private health insurance and another 24,000 in the Oregon Health Plan. Thousands of o...

December 26, 2013

34 view(s)

HealthCare.gov and the Never-Arriving Deadline

Even as it extended the deadline to midnight Dec. 24 for those seeking health coverage starting on Jan. 1, 2014, HealthCare.gov officials posted a message on the site that anyone who started enrollment by the deadline but couldn't finish due to heavy traffic or site issues would still have more time. A message late Tuesday on HealthCare.gov announced: “We don’t want ...

December 26, 2013

36 view(s)

Whistleblowers Can Now File Complaints Online

Whistleblowers covered by one of 22 statutes administered by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will now be able to file complaints online. The online form will provide workers who have been retaliated against an additional way to reach out for OSHA assistance online. "The ability of workers to speak out and exercise their rights withou...

December 23, 2013

53 view(s)

Federal Obamacare Deadline Extended Until Dec. 24 for January Policies

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced early today that it was extending the already-extended Dec. 23 deadline for healtha insurance policies starting Jan. 1, 2014, by one more day. In a statement, Julie Bataille, director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of Communications, said, "We recognize that many have chosen to make their fin...

December 23, 2013

28 view(s)

Court Rules in Favor of EEOC on Conciliation Issue

In a decision endorsed by all its judges, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit decided Friday that employers cannot challenge - and courts cannot review - the adequacy of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) informal pre-litigation efforts to bring employers into compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. According to the Court, Title VII of ...

December 22, 2013

23 view(s)

EEOC Clarifies Policy on Hiring Convicted Criminals

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in three recent opinion letters, has clarified that businesses must have clear reasons and policies for not hiring individuals with criminal pasts, especially if the not-hire decision results in a disparate impact in matters of race or national origin. “Excluding people from employment due to criminal records may raise issues under...

December 19, 2013

26 view(s)

IRS Posts New Mileage Reimbursement Rates

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced mileage reimbursement rates for 2014, with two of them decreasing by a half-cent each. Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, employers using the standard IRS rates for mileage reimbursement should adhere to these standards: 56 cents per mile for business miles driven; 23.5 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes; and 14 ce...

December 17, 2013

28 view(s)

D.C. Set to Vote on $11 Minimum Wage, Judge to Rule on SeaTac $15 Rate

In a mere formality, the Washington, D.C. Council is set to vote today on raising the city's minimum wage to $11.50 an hour by 2016. The council previously approved the hike unanimously. This time the measure will go to Mayor Vincent Gray for his signature. Gray has said he supports an immediate raise to $10 an hour but added that he wants to study the prospect of further increases. ...

December 16, 2013

21 view(s)

HHS to Focus on the 'Good, Bad & Ugly' of Contracting

Following the mess that became the HealthCare.gov website, whose creation was awarded to a single contractor without competitive bidding, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is ordering a review and putting new policies and personnel in place to clean up the contracting process. At the same time, the department announced that its January "Contracting with CMS&...

December 15, 2013

28 view(s)

HHS Announces Fix to HealthCare.gov Data Output

With about a week to go before the Dec. 23 deadline to apply for health coverage commencing Jan. 1, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Saturday announced that the HealthCare.gov website had been fixed so that complete and correct information would henceforth be transmitted to affected insurance companies HHS said that the error rate is now down to 0.38 percent...

117 of 221

Options

About author

Girish Anand

Recent Articles

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

U.S. Department of Labor Officially Restores Prior Overtime Exemption Rules

On May 14th, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced it has officially rescinded the 2024 overtime exemption rules. Specifically, the WHD published a technical amendment to restore previous 2019 regulations that dictated overtime exemptions for...

NLRB General Counsel Takes Action to Tackle Current Case Backlog

On May 6th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and NLRB General Counsel Crystal Stowe Carey announced the bulk transfer of thousands of labor practice cases. Specifically, this action fulfills an initiative signed by the NLRB General Counsel earlier this year. Overall, the initiative...

Privacy Agency Invites Comments from Businesses on the CCPA’s Usage of Personal Data

Recently, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued a call for comments on the current state of personal data collection under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Specifically, the invitation to deliver remarks was issued on April 20th, 2026. The information provided by the...

DOL Proposes New Joint Employer Rule To Unify Standards Under Federal Labor Laws

In April 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to establish a single, clear standard for determining when joint-employer status applies under three major federal laws: the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Migrant and Seasonal...

DOL Updates Enforcement Approach for Employee Benefit Plans: What Employers Should Know

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a significant change in its enforcement of employee benefit plan rules. The DOL will now focus more closely on serious violations that harm workers and retirees, meaning compliant employers may face less scrutiny under the updated approach.

View All Articles

Articles by Girish Anand