by Girish Anand | Nov 18, 2013 | Personnel Concepts
Obamacare supporters are quick to distance the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the federal health care reform measure signed into law in 2010, from the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1989, but some parallels do exist. For one, seniors in 1989 on Medicare balked at...
by Girish Anand | Nov 13, 2013 | Personnel Concepts
The HealthCare.gov federal Obamacare website, while undergoing fixes for bugs that frequently prevent access and enrollments, also is sporting a new look (see image). For its debut, the website featured a woman's image, but the woman recently claimed during an ABC...
by Girish Anand | Nov 8, 2013 | OSHA, Personnel Concepts
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is proposing to amend its record-keeping regulations to add requirements for the electronic submission of injury and illness information employers are already required to keep under Part 1904. The proposed...
by Girish Anand | Oct 24, 2013 | Personnel Concepts, State Labor Law
Two laws coming into force on Nov. 1 in Oklahoma affect and clarify existing laws governing tobacco use in the workplace. New 21 Okla. Stat. § 1247 prohibits lighted tobacco products in any form in indoor workplaces. It does allow employers to establish smoking...
by Girish Anand | Oct 9, 2013 | Personnel Concepts, Random Musings
Companies that follow Congress's suggestion and auto-enroll their employees in 401(k) defined-contribution retirement plans indeed see higher participation rates — 71 to 67 percent — but also appear more reluctant to chip in company matching funds, a...
by Girish Anand | Sep 25, 2013 | Personnel Concepts, workers' comp
In a report covering the past two-and-a-half years, the National Insurance Crime Bureau says the number of workers' compensation claims nationwide is falling year to year — from 3.35 million in 2011 to 3.24 million in 2012 — but questionable claims are...