Damning report: Obamacare penalizes your workers, ‘taxes’ them

By Jared Bilski

There’s been plenty of criticism on how the Affordable Care Act is hurting businesses. But a new report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) offers a 10-year outlook that is perhaps the worst criticism of the law yet.

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Bringing civility back into the workplace

By Tim Gould

It seems like today’s workplace has become a lot less civil than it used to be. Why is that? And is there anything we can do about it?  


Industrial psychologist Dennis Davis, who works for the law firm Ogletree Deakins and is a regular speaker at employment law conferences, offers some theories on both questions.

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Does the common cold or flu trigger FMLA obligations?

By Christian Schappel

There’s one passage in the FMLA’s rules that’s particularly vexing for employers.
Here it is:

… conditions that ordinarily, unless complications arise, would not meet the regulatory definition of a serious health condition and would not, therefore, qualify for FMLA leave: the common cold, the flu, ear aches, upset stomach, minor ulcers, headaches other than migraine, routine dental or orthodontia problems, periodontal disease, etc.

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Tip Tuesday! Affordable Care Act Update

By Jason Cogdill

Marketplace Update
On January 13, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report on the Health Insurance Marketplace covering the first three months of open enrollment, October 1 through December 28, 2013.
Key statistics include:

• Through December, 2.15 million enrolled in either the federal Marketplace (1.2 million) or state exchanges (950k). That figure is now around 3 million.
• Of 7.7 million applications through December, 5.1 million were eligible for an exchange plan (rather than Medicaid or Medicare). 53% of applicants were eligible for subsidy.
• 80% of enrollees were subsidy eligible.
• 33% of enrollees were ages 55-64.
• 60% of enrollees chose Silver plan.  20% chose Bronze plan. 1% enrolled in catastrophic plans.

How Can Employers Reimburse Individual Health Premiums?

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Digital-age dilemma: Handling employees who misbehave in emails

By Tim Gould

 

Email’s ubiquitous in today’s workplace. And it can sometimes qualify as HR’s biggest digital-age headache.  

Electronic messaging is just one more opportunity for employees — and, yes, managers — to screw up.

Take this recent case out of Illinois:

Margarita Zaya was an ultrasound technician at Rockford Memorial Hospital. She’d received positive performance reviews — until she apparently became disenchanted with her direct supervisor.

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Talent management: The 4 big challenges for HR [INFOGRAPHIC]

By Dan Wisniewski

When it comes to managing your company’s talent, are you on top of these four issues?
  
The folks at Silk Road recently surveyed 3,700 talent management and HR professionals to get to the bottom of what’s in the way of handling talent correctly.

The four biggest problems?

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Specifics on “Play or Pay” Final Rules for Large Employers

By Lisa Klinger

On February 10, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service issued long-awaited Final Regulations (227 pages) implementing the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as a Fact Sheet (3 pages) and Questions and Answers (15 pages).  The final regulations leave intact the basic implementation framework of the Proposed Regulations that were issued December 28, 2012, but make a number of important changes and much-needed clarifications. 

Click here for entire article.

On February 10, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service issued long-awaited Final Regulations (227 pages) implementing the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as a Fact Sheet (3 pages) and Questions and Answers (15 pages).  The final regulations leave intact the basic implementation framework of the Proposed Regulations that were issued December 28, 2012, but make a number of important changes and much-needed clarifications. - See more at: http://news.leavitt.com/health-care-reform/specifics-final-regs-employer-mandate-one-year-delay-smaller-employers-requirements-eased-larger-employers/#sthash.MsEMfPFr.dpufskldjglkjl

On February 10, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service issued long-awaited Final Regulations (227 pages) implementing the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as a Fact Sheet (3 pages) and Questions and Answers (15 pages).  The final regulations leave intact the basic implementation framework of the Proposed Regulations that were issued December 28, 2012, but make a number of important changes and much-needed clarifications.
This article provides additional details on our original article (published February 10, 2014) and summarizes what we consider the primary areas of interest for employers.  We will soon publish separate and more detailed articles on specific topics in the regulations.
- See more at: http://news.leavitt.com/health-care-reform/specifics-final-regs-employer-mandate-one-year-delay-smaller-employers-requirements-eased-larger-employers/#sthash.MsEMfPFr.dpuf

On February 10, 2014, the Internal Revenue Service issued long-awaited Final Regulations (227 pages) implementing the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as well as a Fact Sheet (3 pages) and Questions and Answers (15 pages).  The final regulations leave intact the basic implementation framework of the Proposed Regulations that were issued December 28, 2012, but make a number of important changes and much-needed clarifications.
This article provides additional details on our original article (published February 10, 2014) and summarizes what we consider the primary areas of interest for employers.  We will soon publish separate and more detailed articles on specific topics in the regulations.
- See more at: http://news.leavitt.com/health-care-reform/specifics-final-regs-employer-mandate-one-year-delay-smaller-employers-requirements-eased-larger-employers/#sthash.MsEMfPFr.dpuf