Traditional employment laws often interact with traditional employee benefit laws. One such example is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)'s impact on employer-sponsored group health plans. As group health plan costs continue to rise, and as federal health care reform legislation focuses additional attention on health plan design and coverage issues, it is important for employers to remain vigilant of the ADA's implications for their health plan eligibility decisions.
Employers recognize that the relative health of their workforce and covered dependents can impact their overall health plan costs. Employers also recognize that among their existing workforce, the ADA and other federal and state laws will protect covered individuals from certain adverse employment actions intended to dissuade disabled individuals from joining or remaining on the employer's group health plan. Similar questions can arise even before individuals are hired.
If an ADA-covered prospective employer learns during the course of the job application process that an applicant happens to have a disabled dependent child, can the employer condition a job offer on an agreement that the applicant will not enroll the child in the group health plan? The answer is NO, as this action would violate the ADA. Such an agreement also raises concerns under other laws, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)'s coverage rules, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)'s nondiscrimination rules, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)'s disclosure rules.
I will cover this and other similar topics, within a series of practical, real-world examples of benefits compliance challenges facing employers, at the 18th Annual Akerman Labor & Employment Law Seminar. Hope to see you there!
