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Bloomberg Agrees to Buy Bureau of National Affairs for About $990 Million

BNA, which publishes the Daily Labor Report and U.S. Law Week, will 'significantly grow Bloomberg's presence in Washington' and its research will contribute to coverage and analysis of employment, health care, labor, accounting, intellectual property and telecommunications, Bloomberg said.

Telecommuting Creates 'Nexus' in Many States, Subjecting Products and Services to Sales Tax

"Telecommuting and maintaining in-home offices are among the activities that can create state tax liabilities, a Bloomberg BNA survey found. Potential Impact: Employers may be exposed to unexpected taxes when allowing employees to telecommute from other states. Few states have adopted nexus policies aimed at fostering alternative-work arrangements, according to a survey of state revenue agencies by Bloomberg BNA[.]"

These Top Law Firms Got the Most ERISA Class Action Biz

"The law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius tops the list of law firms getting the most business from large employers hit with ERISA class actions in the past year. Since November 2015, Morgan Lewis has been hired to represent employers in 19 [ERISA] class actions, according to Bloomberg BNA's research.... O'Melveny & Myers LLP closely follows."

Employer Groups See Mixed Bag in EEOC Wellness Plan Ruling

"Orion won on the voluntary standard issue, but there should be a concern about the court's application of the safe harbor provision in the Americans with Disabilities Act ... Employers have taken a position that the safe harbor applies and the court essentially ruled that out in this case, she said. The deference the court is giving to the safe harbor provision isn't what employers were hoping for[.] ... Some employer groups see this as a win for their side. The Orion decision is a 'very strong rebuttal' to the EEOC's final regulation that the limited incentives that employers can provide to participants in wellness plans can't go over 30 percent, Mark Wilson, chief economist at the HR Policy Association in Washington, told Bloomberg BNA[.]"

The HHS Final Rule to Implement Health Insurance Exchange Markets

"Although the final rule has a more immediate impact on individuals and small businesses, it also has implications for large employers, human resources and public policy experts told Bloomberg BNA. 'This matters to large employers in a less explicit manner, but it is important because states will have the option of opening their exchanges in 2017 to large employers,' ..."

Recent DOL Initiatives: Questions Answered

Questions from a webinar titled 'Managing and Protecting Your Employee Benefit Plans: New [DOL] Initiatives', answered by Sherwin Kaplan, former co-chair of the Bloomberg BNA Pension & Benefits Publications Advisory Board.

Spokesman Says DOL Won't Enforce the Fiduciary Rule

"The Labor Department won't be enforcing the fiduciary rule -- at least for now -- after a federal appeals court in Louisiana vacated the rule, a department spokesman told Bloomberg Law March 16.... It's helpful to the industry that the DOL is acknowledging that it covers the whole rule and has a nationwide impact, Kevin Walsh, an attorney with Groom Law Group [said] ... It would also be helpful for the DOL to make clear that the rule is off the books and other parties can't enforce it, Walsh added."

Supreme Court Ruling Leaves Open Questions on Restructuring Health Plans and Workforces

"Employers will have difficult decisions to make following the Supreme Court's June 28 ruling to uphold most of the 2010 federal health care system overhaul, especially about whether employers can avoid costly pay-or-play penalties under regulations still being drafted, employee benefit attorneys told BNA. The lack of final regulations on major provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including ones implementing employer penalties under tax code Section 4980H, means that many employers do not yet see clearly how they might restructure their employee benefits or, in some industries, restructure their workforces in response to the new regulations."

Your Plan Costs More Than Mine: The Price Tag for Paid Leave

"The main factor that changes the cost calculation is the number of people likely to use the leave, and that largely depends on whether the program guarantees a worker will be able to return to the job after taking leave and what kinds of leave are covered.... [P]ersonal medical leave is the most expensive to cover, parental leave falls in the middle, and family care leave is the least costly.... Based on private sector use of leave afforded under the [FMLA, one study] estimated that if 13 million workers took paid leave for a medical issue for an average of 4.7 weeks at $452 per week, it would cost $27.5 million in benefits."

Supreme Court May Hear Case on ERISA Participants' Standing to Sue

"Because in most instances defined benefit plan participants are not at risk of losing their benefits when the plan loses money -- though the investment losses may make future benefit enhancements less likely -- a requirement of individual harm, whether for statutory or constitutional standing purposes, could effectively preclude participants of these plans from pursuing recovery of plan losses. Second, if the Supreme Court were to rule that individual harm is required as a condition for having statutory standing under Section 502(a)(2) or (3), the ruling could increase the likelihood for mounting an effective argument in defined contribution litigation that plaintiffs lack standing to sue to recover for investment losses in funds in which they did not invest[.]" [Thole v. U.S. Bank N.A., No. 16-1928 (8th Cir. Oct. 12, 2017; cert. pet. filed June 22, 2018)]