Archive for the ‘Health Care Reform’ Category

Beating the deadline of June 21, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released regulations to commence the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program on June 1 as mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The program will reimburse employers who provide health insurance for retirees between the ages of 55 [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released rules for the health reform measure that allows parents to keep dependents on their health insurance through age 25, which takes effect Sept. 23. The rules mandate that pricing for dependents of any age be the same, though it sets no limits on the pricing. [...]

There are some cautionary tales and lessons in the strange case of Huping Zhou, 47, who once worked for the UCLA Health System–until he was fired for poor performance–and who now finds himself facing hard time for HIPAA privacy violations. Here’s where it gets strange for both UCLA and the Chinese surgeon. First, UCLA gave [...]

The National Restaurant Association saw it as a "devil we know" over a bunch of pending state regulations that were "devils we don’t know," so Obamacare–the recent health care reform package–includes a provision for chain restaurants to post calorie counts and nutritional information for their menu items. Now, as with other federal laws and regulations, [...]

With the election of Scott Brown as the 41st Republican to prevent the full Senate from voting on health care reform, the Democrats are left with difficult choices to see their baby through. Some bloggers have written of a secret deal between Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid by which the House would approve the Senate [...]

Two bills in the House of Representatives aim to extend the eligibility date for subsidies of COBRA health coverage through June 31, 2010. Currently, those involuntarily discharged from their jobs are eligible for a 65-percent subsidy of COBRA health care only if they are terminated by Dec. 31, 2009. Both HR 3930 and HR 3966 embrace the [...]

Implementing changes to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) contained in the stimulus package (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Oct. 30, 2009, published its Interim Final Rule in the Federal Register. The Final Rule expands the power of the Health and Human Services [...]

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released a new version of its "Equal Employment Opportunity Is the Law" poster that incorporates new regulations for the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), along with new contact information. With GINA taking effect for employers on Nov. 21, 2009, it is imperative to make [...]

This week a House-Senate panel reconciling budget measures voted to extend for three years the E-Verify online employment eligibility system. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) formally withdrew the "no match" safe harbor rule of the Bush administration. The Bush-era "no match" rule gave employers three months to straighten out mismatched [...]

They ain’t publicizing it, but it’s there: A harm threshold in the Interim Final Rule published yesterday (Sept. 23, 2009) by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that lets covered entities avoid ever admitting to a private health information (PHI) breach. The secret? Just encrypt the data. As the Interim Final Rule says, [...]