"The first Gag Clause Prohibition Compliance Attestation (GCPCA) submission is due December 31, 2023, and will cover the period of December 27, 2020, through the date of the attestation. Subsequent GCPCA submissions are due by December 31st of each year thereafter. Group health plans can satisfy their reporting obligations by having third parties, such as carriers or third-party administrators (TPAs), submit the attestation on their behalf."  MORE >>

"[CMS] looked at whether hospitals had met their obligation to post price information online in two key formats: a 'shoppable' list of at least 300 services for consumers, and a comprehensive machine-readable file that incorporates all the services for which the hospital has standard charges.... CMS found that 70% of hospitals published both lists in 2022. An additional 12% published one or the other. By contrast, the agency's previous progress assessment in 2021 found that just 27% of 235 hospitals had both types of lists."  MORE >>

"An employee with a sick child who was denied remote work at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic may have brought viable [FMLA] claims against her employer.... The 6th Circuit noted that the plaintiff never actually took FMLA leave, but only made a request for leave. Thus, the court found, the question was whether she had a right to inquire about and request leave even if it turned out that she was not entitled to such leave." [Milman v. Fieger & Fieger PC, No. 21-2685 (6th Cir. Jan. 25, 2023)]  MORE >>

"TV commercials featuring celebrity endorsers urging viewers to call a toll-free number to sign up for Medicare Advantage plans, and advertising selling short-term, or 'skinny' health plans, that are not compliant with the [ACA] are two of the best-known examples of improper health plan marketing, state insurance regulators have said."  MORE >>

"[The authors] find several weaknesses that highlight the difficulty involved in building the biometric data sets needed to make an actuarially fair valuation of the premiums for LTCI and LCAs. [They] also verify the existence of the so-called 'male-female health-survival paradox', i.e. the fact that women have greater longevity than men but are also likely to spend proportionally more time in some state of dependence, irrespective of the initial health state."  MORE >>

"Some of the protections and benefits that will be gutted by HB 357/SB 898 include eliminating discounts for co-pays, which employers use to drive down costs by encouraging patients to visit pharmacies or utilize mail-order prescription services that sell drugs at lower prices. This legislation also ... [eliminates] the protections that control costs for specialty prescription drugs or when purchasing prescription drugs from a specialty pharmacy.... [If] this legislation passes, Maryland lawmakers will increase costs throughout the health care supply chain."  MORE >>

"The final regulations: [1] reduce the 250-return filing threshold to generally require electronic filing by filers of 10 or more returns in a calendar year.... [2] require filers to aggregate almost all information return types covered by the regulation to determine whether a filer meets the 10-return threshold ... [3] permit waivers for filers that would experience hardship in complying with the e-filing requirements.... [T]he hardship waiver is not applicable to Form 5500 filings."  MORE >>