"Beginning on January 1, 2023, the Washington Paid Family & Medical Leave Program's 'total premium' rate rose to 0.8% from 0.6%.... Employers with 50 or more people employed will pay at least 27.24% of the total premium, which would require their employees to pay 72.76% of the total premium."  MORE >>

"Health care providers can be important allies in helping employees obtain the necessary job protections afforded by the FMLA by timely and accurately completing requests for certification. This flyer outlines what health care providers need to know about FMLA and the steps they can take to make sure patients’ and family caregivers’ employment is protected during serious illness."  MORE >>

"This guide provides information on how to talk to your employer about taking job-protected leave for family or medical reasons under the FMLA. In this guide, you'll find information on: [1] Things to know as you think about FMLA leave; [2] When to let your employer know you might need FMLA leave; [3] Talking to your employer about FMLA leave; [4] Things you don't have to tell your employer; [5] What your employer must tell you about FMLA leave; [6] How to reach [DOL] if you need help."  MORE >>

"If you or a loved one has cancer, workplace protections including job protected leave and protection from discrimination help ensure you can prioritize the time and care needed for recovery without worrying about job security.... In this guide, you'll find more information on: [1] Taking time off from work for cancer treatment, recovery and care; and [2] Protections against discrimination."  MORE >>

"Employers with FSAs and health plans that operate on different plan years may wish to consider educating employees ... In addition, when an employee has a qualifying event, employers should consider carefully whether that event allows the employee to reduce or eliminate FSA contributions. As a potential workaround, employers can offer a limited purpose FSA option to their employees. Employees moving to an HDHP may then be able to convert their general or health FSA to an HSA compatible limited purpose FSA[.]"  MORE >>

"[O]rganizations that fail to take advantage of tools -- such as artificial intelligence to help employees make benefits decisions, application programming interfaces (APIs) that improve the speed and accuracy of benefits transactions by integrating disparate systems, and new analytics tools to measure benefits' return on investment -- risk wasting the investments they made to attract new workers and keep existing ones on board."  MORE >>

"Eventually, you may see companies use the price transparency data to create Kayak-style or Expedia-style price-comparison websites. ... You may log into your employer’s benefits app to review your insurance benefits and see the price of the services you need. This price data will start to make its way to consumers throughout 2023 in these ways; it just takes time to distill this data in the software development life cycle."  MORE >>

"The policy debate about how to control private health care prices is obscured by an array of overlapping terms whose meanings are often confused and conflated, including: costs, prices, billing, spending, margins, and affordability. A common set of definitions can provide clarity by helping to identify which policy levers are being pulled and to assess the impact of any proposed policy change."  MORE >>

"[I]ncremental insurance expansions focused on addressing market failures will propagate inefficiencies and are not likely to facilitate active policy decisions that align with societal coverage goals. By instead defining a basic bundle of services that is publicly financed for all, while allowing individuals to purchase additional coverage, policymakers could both expand coverage and maintain incentives for innovation, fostering universal access to innovative care in an affordable system."  MORE >>

"[1] Do poorly set public prices distort commercial prices? ... [2] How should services be defined? ... [3] How does quality respond to changes in pricing? ... [4] How should we price new digital services? ... [5] How much spending is flowing outside of the claims system? ... [6] Are pay for performance systems worth it? ... [7] To what extent do high prices reflect higher costs of production in the U.S., and why?"  MORE >>