HSA eligible plans are extremely popular these days. However, not everyone has had experience using an HSA with their benefits. This can be confusing since the plans do function differently from other plans with their ties to a bank account - the HSA itself.
If you have an HMO plan, your healthcare is pretty well structured and costs are very clear up front. However, there are still things that you should know to get the most out of your HMO plan. Even if you are completely healthy, it’s a good idea to know how to take steps to prevent future issues and to make sure that you are ready if an issue were to arise.
My child is going to school in California (or a different state than I reside) what should he do about health insurance? Currently, he is covered by a plan in the state our family lives.
An opt-out arrangement offered as part of a group health plan can provide significant advantages to employers. Through such an arrangement, employees who have alternative sources of coverage are incentivized to forego participation in the employer plan. In exchange for the waiver, the employee receives a (taxable) payment. However, recent developments - both regulatory and judicial - may undermine the effectiveness of opt-out arrangements in certain circumstances.
In September 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a new version of the EEO-1 reporting form. The new form, which would require employers to supply employee pay and hours data, was to go into effect in March 2018 for reporting year 2017. The EEOC indicated that the inclusion of pay data would facilitate the agency’s investigations into gender, race, and ethnicity pay discrimination.
In April 2016, San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the Paid Parental Leave Ordinance (PPL) - the first local mandate in the nation to require fully paid parental leave for new parents. Under PPL, covered employers are required to provide supplemental income to eligible employees who take parental leave and receive Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits through the State. PPL took effect January 1 of this year, but its application is phased-in over the course of the year.
Update as of July 21, 2017: Under the leadership of new Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, the Department of Labor signaled last month that it will drop its defense of the new overtime rule.
Effective July 1, 2017, Assembly Bill 72 will limit the surprise medical bills that patients in California receive when treated by an out-of-network provider at an in-network healthcare facility. These surprise bills, also referred to as the practice of balance-billing, affect patients nationwide. While California previously passed similar legislation aimed at limiting surprise bills in the context of emergency care, this newest law is the State's biggest step towards further minimizing a patient's exposure to unexpected medical costs.