Articles by Girish Anand

December 18, 2015

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Obamacare Death by a Thousand Cuts?

As part of the budget deal set to pass today, Republicans (largely) have delayed two Obamacare taxes and extended a moratorium on federal funds for use in the "risk corridors" program. Both the medical device tax and the Cadillac tax on expensive health insurance plans have been delayed, the first until Dec. 31, 2017, and the second until Jan. 1, 2020. Both are two-year extensions. The risk c...

December 17, 2015

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Comment Period Extended Until Jan. 28 on EEOC Proposed Wellness Rule

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has extended the comment period on its proposed wellness rule from Dec. 29 to Jan. 28, 2016. The proposed rule addresses "inducements to employees' spouses or other family members who respond to questions about their current or past medical conditions on health risk assessments (HRA)" in connection with wellness programs. Click here for comme...

December 16, 2015

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What's a Federal Deadline Worth? Not Much Evidently Unless It's Tax Time

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday extended by 48 hours the deadline for consumers to sign up for health care coverage on the Obamacare exchanges that would kick in on New Year's Day. After initially saying that those who had trouble signing up by the original deadline, Dec. 15, would have additional time if they left contact information, HHS caved when faced with a m...

December 15, 2015

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As Web Visits Soar, Some Obamacare Shoppers Given Extensions for Jan. 1 Coverage

As visits to HealthCare.gov soared on Monday to the highest level ever -- some 178,000 individuals at the same time -- anxious consumers who were unable to get the help they needed to sign up for Obamacare coverage beginning Jan. 1 were given special enrollment period (SEP) status, according to the New York Times and USA Today. Today is technically the final day to enroll in health insurance o...

December 15, 2015

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Consumer-Friendly Features Added to HealthCare.Gov

As consumers count down to today's enrollment deadline for Jan. 1 coverage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that new HealthCare.gov consumer decision support features piloted earlier this enrollment season are now fully deployed for all visitors. The new Out-of-Pocket Cost calculator, Doctor and Facility Lookup, and Prescription Drug Lookup features will help c...

December 14, 2015

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MLB Lawsuit Attracts 500 Minor League Signatories

Since winning class action certification in October, the lawsuit against Major League Baseball (MLB) over wage-and-hour issues for its minor leaguers has seen some 500 current and former players add their names, including a couple already in the big leagues. “We’re very happy with it,” said Garrett Broshuis, the lawyer handling the case, a former minor-league baseball player himself. “The feed...

December 13, 2015

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Obamacare Penalties to Rise Sharply in 2016

Failure to obtain health care insurance for yourself and your family members can be fairly costly in 2016. The penalty for an individual not having coverage is $695. For a family, it's $695 per adult plus $347.50 per child, with a family maximum of $2,085. Such are the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare). After 2016, however, the penalties are merely indexed for inflation...

December 13, 2015

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Judge Expands Uber Lawsuit

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen has expanded the lawsuit against Uber to include even those drivers in California who failed to opt out of the company's arbitration agreement. Previously, the class action suit against the ride-sharing service was limited only to drivers who never signed the arbitration agreement or who drove for Uber before the clause was added into the contract. The legal ac...

December 13, 2015

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Proposed DOL Rule Receives No Public Comments

Suppose they issued a final rule and no one paid any attention. That's kind of what's happening with the Nov. 18 proposal by the Department of Labor (DOL) to give states a safe harbor to establish IRA-like retirement plans for companies and individuals with no other coverage. To date, no public comments have been tendered on the proposal, which has a 60-day commentary period still unfolding. ...

December 11, 2015

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Obamacare Sign-Ups Already Surpass Dec. 15 Goal

Though critics claim the goal of 900,000 new Obamacare sign-ups by Dec. 15 was modest to begin with, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that the state and federal exchanges have already secured 1 million new enrollees. In all, 2.83 million have signed up this year, according to CMS. Dec. 15 is significant because that's the latest date at which coverage be...

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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

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Articles by Girish Anand