District Court Judge Stops HHS Regulations Regarding Contraception Mandate

When Congressional drafters wrote the Affordable Care Act 10 years ago, they included a provision requiring group health plans to provide preventive care without cost sharing. Much of that coverage requirement was set forth in the Act itself with some specificity. It included immunizations, screenings, and other “evidence-based items or services” recommended by the United States Preventive Services Tax Force. The Act also provided for special rules for preventive care “with respect to women;” however, those rules were not specified in the Act and were to be determined by a government agency. After the law safely passed, the Health Resources and Services Administration, acting on the findings of the Institute of Medicine, decided that preventive care with respect to women must include coverage for contraceptive services without cost sharing. In the decade since that provision became law, plan sponsors have been dealing with nearly constant administrative and judicial pinball regarding this contentious topic. More ›

EEOC Ordered to Reconsider What “Voluntary” Means for its Wellness Program Guidance

The long-running efforts of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to provide guidance on what constitutes a “voluntary” wellness program were called into question by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in the case A.A.R.P. vs. U.S. E.E.O.C. More ›

Of Interest: U.S. Supreme Court Saves Obamacare a Second Time

Note: Though the Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell (issued today) does not directly implicate an employment issue, the opinion is quite significant and likely of interest to many employers who have been following the developments of the Affordable Care Act. Thus, we share a summary of the opinion addressing the latest challenge to the ACA prepared by our colleagues in Hinshaw's national Appellate Practice Group.

By a 6-3 margin, the Supreme Court has ruled in King v. Burwell that the provision in the Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare") that offered tax credits to people who purchase health insurance on a health insurance exchange created under the ACA applied whether or not the exchange was established by a State or by the federal government. In doing so the Court saved the ACA from the consequences of what was largely thought to be a "scrivener's error," that is, a drafting mistake in a bill that was nearly 1,000 pages long. More ›

Obama Administration Relaxes Employer Mandate

The moving target that is the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate keeps on moving.

The Treasury Department today issued a rule relaxing important employer requirements under the ACA, foremost among them to postpone the mandate for businesses with between 50 and 99 employees until 2016. More ›

Compliance: Making sense of the myriad tests for independent contractor v. employment status

The question of whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor can have very important consequences, as the two categories receive very different treatment under the law.

To name only a few differences, there are no federal or state income tax withholding obligations for independent contractors; wage and hour laws do not apply to independent contractors; most anti-discrimination laws do not apply to independent contractors. And, of course, the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act does not apply in the case of independent contractors. There is a lot riding on the question. More ›

Obama Administration Bends Individual Mandate Rules

With the deadline to select health coverage just days away, the Obama administration has given an early Christmas present to individuals whose policies were cancelled because of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).

Those individuals will be temporarily “exempted” from the ACA’s individual mandate, according to a bulletin issued late Thursday from the Department of Health and Human Services. The rule change was spearheaded by a group of Democratic senators, many of whom face tough re-elections battles next year. More ›

California Will Not Allow Health Insurers to Reinstate Coverage

More than a million California residents whose health plans were cancelled under the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, will not be able to keep their existing coverage, despite President Obama’s directive that insurers keep such plans available for another year. More ›

Obamacare Chaos: Two Lessons for Employers

Dysfunctional websites. Low enrollment numbers. Public outrage over cancelled health policies. Mea cuplas. Presidential administrative “fix.”  Competing Congressional solutions. Finger pointing. It’s enough to make your head spin!

As an employer, you may be wondering what the recent flurry of activity surrounding the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) means for your business. This post presents the two most important lessons that employers should keep in mind following last week’s events. More ›

The Affordable Care Act’s Contraceptive Care Mandate Applies to Covered For-Profit Corporate Employers

On October 24, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, held that a for-profit natural foods corporation could not establish that it can exercise religion, and therefore could not use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, (RFRA), as a vehicle to challenge the contraceptive care requirements created by the Affordable Care Act. Eden Foods, Inc. v. Sebelius, No. 13-1677 (6th Cir. Oct. 24, 2013). In addition, the Sixth Circuit held that the plaintiff corporation's chairman, president and sole shareholder lacked standing to challenge the obligations solely imposed upon the corporate employer. The framing of the issues by the Court points out that what tripped up plaintiffs' attempt to obtain a court order exempting the employer from the contraceptive care requirements did not arise from the U.S. Constitution. More ›

Obamacare Small Business Exchange Delayed

Mounting technical delays are complicating the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

The website Politico is reporting that the Obama Administration intends to delay a portion of Obamacare aimed at small businesses.

The delay involves online enrollment for small business health exchanges run by the federal government known as “SHOP” exchanges, Politico reports.  Enrollment was scheduled to start on October 1, 2013.  Small businesses will now have to wait until November to enroll online, though paper enrollment is still an option. More ›