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Court Rules California City Must Continue to Pay Retiree Health Benefits
"A local government can be bound by a past commitment to pay future retirement benefits to its employees even if it says it can no longer afford them, a [California] state appeals court ruled Friday.... A labor agreement can provide 'vested rights' that remain in effect after the agreement expires, said Justice George Nicholson in the 3-0 ruling. He said the most reasonable interpretation of the original Redding contract was that 'the benefit was promised to active employees when they retired' in future years."
(San Francisco Chronicle)
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Post-Election Flood of Obamacare Rules Expected
"The once-steady stream of regulations and rules from the Obama administration -- instructions for insurance companies, hospitals and states on how to put the law in place -- has slowed to a trickle in recent months ... But work has been going on behind the scenes -- both in the Department of Health and Human Services and at the state level. As soon as Wednesday, the gears and levers of government bureaucracy are likely to start moving at full speed again."
(Politico)
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Ohio District Court Rules That ERISA Preempts State FMLA Law Permitting Employees to Substitute Other Leave
"This court reaches a different conclusion than an earlier case and a DOL advisory opinion on ERISA preemption of state FMLA laws. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that the [Wisconsin] FMLA substitution provision was not preempted by ERISA. And a DOL advisory opinion has concluded that a substitution provision in another state's FMLA law was not preempted by ERISA. This federal trial court declined to draw the conclusion, reached in these two prior instances, that ERISA preemption would impair the FMLA." [[Sherfel v. Gassman, 2012 WL 4499245 (S.D. Ohio 2012)]]
(Thomson Reuters / EBIA)
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UnitedHealth Takes Over Risk Adjustment Function from Government
"The Obama administration is relying heavily on outside contractors to implement a core component of healthcare reform as it races to set up a federal health insurance marketplace before 2014. The fast-approaching deadline gives the administration little time to scrutinize private-sector partners for conflicts of interest. The purchase of one of these contractors, Quality Software Services, Inc. (QSSI), by UnitedHealth Group, a major healthcare conglomerate, has sparked concerns about a potentially uneven playing field."
(Physicians for a National Health Program)
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Employers Hit by Rising Health Costs Look to High-Deductible Plans
"This year, 19 percent of workers with insurance from an employer were enrolled in a high-deductible plan, more than double the percentage from just three years ago ... And these plans now have edged out HMOs as the second-most-popular option offered by U.S. employers[.]"
(The Baltimore Sun)
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Husband's Medical Records Must Be Disclosed To Former Employer In Employee's Lawsuit Based On FMLA
"[HIPAA] did not prevent disclosure of medical records to his wife's former employer in a wrongful termination suit because the husband's medical condition was a central issue in the litigation, a federal district court has ruled ... The employee ... claimed that her employer ... terminated her for taking family medical leave to care for her husband after surgery. [The employer] claimed that [she] abused the leave by taking a vacation to Mexico." [Tavares v. Lawrence & Memorial Hospital (D. Conn, 3:11-CV-770 (CSH))]
(Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)
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Deloitte Health Care Reform Memo, November 5, 2012
"In the past decade, while annual median family income has shrunk 0.07 percent (inflation adjusted), insurance premiums have increased 104 percent for employer-sponsored individual coverage and 114 percent for family coverage, and national health expenditures increased by 6.5 percent per year in the same period. Those without health insurance are one in five households and one in three kids.... [T]he new Congress will have no choice: fixing health care is necessary to recover our economy."
(Deloitte)
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Petition Calls for Hurricane Sandy First Responder Health Benefits
"Part-time workers make up about 70 percent of FEMA's workforce, of which 2,300 total employees have been involved with hurricane relief efforts. [They] are paid a flat rate of between $11.29 and $42.03 per hour when they are in travel, on duty or training -- usually about 30 days at a time. The jobs do not include health insurance, annual leave or retirement benefits since they are meant to be temporary."
(Kaiser Health News)
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Benefits in General; Executive Compensation
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Think Tank Recommends Ways to Rein in Military Pay, Benefits
"The Center for American Progress praised Pentagon proposals to cut personnel costs, which include capping pay raises for service members beginning in fiscal 2015, raising TRICARE enrollment fees for military retirees to keep pace with increases in health care costs, creating a 401(k)-based retirement system to replace the current vesting system, and increasing the age at which service members can receive their pensions."
(GovExec.com)
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Press Releases
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