Financial Planning and Contract Negotiation for Female Physicians
The U.S. Social Security Administration is simplifying the disability evaluation it uses for its Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. The agency will now review...more
The DRI Life, Health, and Disability Committee is once again sponsoring a program aimed at providing a basic understanding of the concepts applicable to life, health, and disability litigation. The program, which receives...more
In Steigleman v. Symetra Life Ins. Co., 2023 WL 7413668 (D. Ariz. 2023), a court considered whether a package of various welfare benefit insurance policies an individual business owner arranged for herself and her employees...more
In Ross v. Venerable Insurance & Annuity Co., a Missouri appellate court reversed judgment in favor of the named beneficiary of a flexible premium deferred annuity contract. Following the annuitant’s death, the beneficiary...more
The North Carolina Department of Insurance recently announced that a new investigative unit formed as part of the Cooperative Disability Investigations (CDI) Program will be located in Raleigh, North Carolina, with the goal...more
More changes are coming up for California’s State Disability Insurance (SDI) program, which includes Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits. This article offers an overview of those changes to help you understand how they affect...more
An uncommon combination of three U.S. Senators, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), collaborated to draft “The College Athletes Protection & Compensation Act” (the Act), which is...more
A recent federal appeals court case clarifies that, under ERISA, the regulations governing disability plans’ claims review procedures apply to claims that predate the 2018 changes to the regulations. The decision also serves...more
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2023. Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold and...more
The latest idea for attracting and retaining employees in this post-COVID-19–pandemic era of the Great Resignation and “quiet quitting” is one that was usually limited to professors in higher education: the sabbatical. ...more
The EDD is aggressively pursuing unemployment tax audits aimed at evaluating potential independent contractor misclassification. Presumably due to the overwhelming financial burden the pandemic imposed, the EDD is pursuing...more
California’s 2022 legislative session ended with numerous bills affecting employers and employment practices and procedures in the Golden State. Governor Gavin Newsom signed more than 30 of those bills into law, including...more
After vetoing a similar bill last year, on September 30, 2022, California Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 951, which increases wage replacement rates for lower wage earners under the state Paid Family Leave program...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review a significant decision of the Second Circuit which (1) clarified the scope of California’s statutory ban on discretionary clauses in life and disability insurance contracts,...more
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2022. Employers with employees located in California are generally required to withhold...more
On October 8th, 2021, the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, signed into law Senate Bill No. 510, which requires health care service plan contracts and disability insurance policies that provide coverage for hospital,...more
For a second time, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative class action alleging insurance companies sold them disability policies that were void under New York law. ...more
When negotiating their contracts, female physicians often have different priorities, along with a different negotiating style, than their male counterparts. In this episode, host Ericka Adler, Roetzel shareholder and Health...more
For most employers, it is important to own the intellectual property rights in written and/or graphic work commissioned from independent contractors. But including a Work Made for Hire Clause (“WMFH Clause”) in an...more
An insured filed suit in a Florida district court for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the defendant-carriers’ handling of claims made under the insured’s disability insurance policies....more
The California Employment Development Department (EDD) has released the Voluntary Plan Employee Contribution and Benefit Rates for 2021. Employers are required to withhold and send state disability contributions to the...more
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), the principal federal law which regulates the benefit plans marketed to employers in this country, imposes specific requirements on most employer-sponsored...more
On September 25, 2020, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 855 into law. SB 855 fundamentally alters California’s regulation of mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) treatment, and it applies to all California...more
In Estate of Maurice v. Life Ins. Co. of N. Am., 792 Fed. Appx. 499 (9th Cir. Cal. Feb. 5, 2020), the Ninth Circuit held that coverage was excluded under an ERISA-governed disability plan ("Plan"), because the evidence in the...more
The following are intended to be helpful tips to assist you in clearing some clutter while we have some time at home....more