Employment Law This Week®: DOJ’s New Stance on Title VII, ACA Contraception Mandate, SCOTUS Hears Class-Action Waiver Arguments, RI’s Paid Sick Leave Policy
On January 17, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments over the legality of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. This is the third case on the mandate to receive Supreme Court review....more
Last week the Department of Treasury, U.S. Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services (Departments) published rules exempting employers from the contraceptive coverage mandate created under the Affordable...more
Timely Topics - The final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on May...more
Editor's Overview - In this month's newsletter, we focus on the recent wave of guidance and case law related to the Affordable Care Act. We also discuss IRS Notice 2015-86, which provides guidance on the application of...more
As part of its requirement that non-grandfathered group health plans provide benefits for certain preventive care without cost sharing, the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) requires these plans to cover at least one form of...more
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the consolidated appeals of seven cases involving employer provision of birth control under the Affordable Care Act. In its 2013 Hobby Lobby case, the Court concluded that the...more
As we previously reported, in June 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that closely-held corporations with religious owners could “opt out” from the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA” or “Act”)...more
For the third time in four years, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s signature health reform law passed in 2010. On November 6, 2015, the Supreme...more
Editor's Overview - It has been a little more than one year since the U.S. Supreme Court altered the legal landscape for litigating ERISA breach of fiduciary duty claims relating to the investment in employer stock...more
The Massachusetts Marketplace takes steps to ease consumer confusion by reducing choice among QHPs; North Carolina appears poised to pass Medicaid reform legislation; and bipartisan support is gaining for defining businesses...more
Through new FAQs and final regulations, the U.S. Departments of Labor (“DOL”), Health and Human Services (“HHS”) and the Treasury (the “Departments”) have further clarified various issues related to the preventive care...more
Part I: Is PPACA on the Road to Recovery? The recent decision in King v. Burwell by the Supreme Court of the United States sent a strong message to critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010...more
After a brief summer hiatus, RLUIPA Defense is back with another edition of the Round-Up. What better way to kick things off than with news about the Satanic Temple of Detroit, which recently unveiled “The Satanic Temple...more
The U.S. Departments of Treasury, Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS) have issued interim final regulations and Frequently Asked Questions and Answers on the cost-free coverage of preventive services under the...more
Editor's Overview - This month's article by Lindsey Chopin discusses Affordable Care Act ("ACA") litigation. Just five years old, the Supreme Court has considered issues related to the ACA numerous times. Two of those...more
In quick succession, governors in Alaska and Utah announce Medicaid expansions this week; Iowa is transitioning its expansion away from the Marketplace to Medicaid managed care, for now; and, HHS extends its exception to...more
In a set of rules published last week, the government finalized a July 2010 interim final rule (“IFR”) related to coverage of certain preventive services and an August 2014 IFR regarding the definition of an eligible...more
One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. et al, that for-profit closely held corporations must be permitted to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate on...more
This is the last of our three part series on the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Act”), commonly known as “ObamaCare.” This post discusses upcoming requirements under the ACA and judicial decisions that have impacted or may...more
Has the Supreme Court “ventured into a minefield,” by its “decision of startling breadth,” as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in her dissent to Burwell v. Hobby Lobby? In Hobby Lobby, the Court held that the contraceptive...more
As we have been discussing, the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) requires all health plans to cover preventive health services for women, including all Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”)-approved contraceptives, at no cost (i.e....more
Suzanne Weakley, editor-in-chief of the CEB Business Law Practitioner, recently called my attention to this letter from six professors at U.C. Berkeley (Robert P. Bartlett III, Richard Buxbaum, Stavros Gadinis, Justin...more
In Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. (134 S. Ct. 2751, June 30, 2014), the Supreme Court ruled that closely-held for-profit corporations may refuse for religious reasons to cover contraceptives otherwise required to be...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) issued guidance for closely held for-profit corporations that wish to exclude coverage of any contraceptives under their health plans in the wake of the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Supreme Court...more
In This Issue: - Administration Releases Updated Contraception Coverage Rules - Federal Regulatory Initiatives - Other Congressional and State Initiatives - Other Health Care News - Upcoming...more