Many of the nation’s employers are still on the fence concerning the “Play or Pay” question in health care reform.
Some are leaning toward “Play” (offering employees medical coverage that meets the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [PPACA]), while others are favoring “Pay” (forking over penalties for not offering acceptable coverage to employees).
The law actually calls for two possible penalties for large employers with 50 or more employees: one for not offering “minimum essential” coverage, and the other for offering coverage that isn’t “affordable” and/or doesn’t provide “minimum value.”
After three riveting days of oral arguments in March 2012, employers were left anxiously awaiting the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court about the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, expected near the end of June 2012.
During this period, employers should take interim steps in order to prepare for the eventual decisions. These steps should take into account the full range of possibilities and should position employer group health plans to react to the possible outcomes, respond to inquiries and requests from internal stakeholders, and consider administrative and design issues presented by the possible Supreme Court decisions.
As the nation awaits the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Democrats celebrated the birthday of Massachusetts’ health care law, nicknamed “Romneycare” after its creator, then-Gov. Mitt Romney.
April 12, 2012, marked the six-year anniversary of Romney’s signing into law the health care reform model that President Barack Obama and Congress adopted, in some respects, for the nation in 2010, with the intent of expanding health coverage to millions of Americans. Romney, the expected Republican candidate for president, has said that if elected he would repeal the federal law, dubbed “Obamacare.”
A critical component of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S.744), introduced April 17, 2013, is a provision that would require all employers to participate in an enhanced E-Verify-type program.
Small businesses may be facing a variety of regulatory changes after January 1.
Payroll service provider Paychex outlined a list of 13 potential regulatory changes for small businesses in 2013.
As we fall headlong into the teeth of the winter weather season, now is a good time to review some common questions employers face this time of year.
Following the Supreme Court’s split decision last month regarding Arizona’s 2010 immigration law known as S.B. 1070, three principles are clear:
- The federal government’s role in setting immigration policy supersedes the efforts of all states in this area;
- Despite the decision, certain state immigration laws requiring employers to enroll in E-Verify will remain in operation until the federal government says otherwise; and,
- The stage is set for a comprehensive reform of existing immigration law by the federal government sometime in 2013 regardless of who is elected as the country’s next president.
Employers expect health care costs to rise an average of 7 percent next year, forcing organizations to employ a variety of cost- control measures that largely focus on asking workers to pay more, according to a new survey by the National Business Group on Health.
Do you have a social media policy for your workplace?
If you don’t, you better get cracking, because as this new survey from SilkRoad clearly shows, there’s a good chance that your employees are using social media on the job. In fact, in some cases they are doing so despite the organization’s best efforts to block them from doing so.
Titled Social Media and Workplace 2012 Report, the top-line finding that jumped out at me was this: 75 percent of workers access social media on the job from their personal mobile devices at least once a day (and 60 percent access it multiple times a day), despite the fact that only 43 percent of them work in organizations where social media access is completely open.
Yes, that’s a pretty good indication that when workers are motivated, they’ll do what they want to do no matter how much the much the company tries to stop them.
Companies struggle with social media policies
