Insights

On September 29, 2023, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia set aside a 2021 regulation from HHS and CMS (together, “the agencies”) that permitted rather than required plans and insurers to count drug manufacturer assistance toward cost-sharing limits. Generally, “manufacturer assistance” is any financial support for patients to pay for specific prescription drugs. Subsidies like these are common, but they also give rise to the question of how they should count toward p

On September 21, 2023, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the court) issued a ruling on a case involving a challenge to a 2022 amendment to the DOL’s 2020 Investment Duties Rule (the 2020 Rule). (The amendment is referred to hereinafter as the 2022 Rule). The court determined the 2022 Rule should remain in effect. On January 26, 2023, twenty-five states and some oil and gas entities, including Western Energy Alliance, a trade association representing 200 oil and gas

On October 5, 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 616 into law, amending California’s Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act (HWHFA), which applies to all private employers, including for-profit and not-for-profit employers, regardless of size. HWHFA currently guarantees California workers at least three paid sick days per year. Effective January 1, 2024, that number will increase to at least five days a year. Furthermore, the limits on the annual accrual of sick days will increase fro

The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave announced the premium rates and maximum weekly benefit amount for the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave (MA PFML) program beginning January 1, 2024. The total 2024 MA PFML premium contribution for employers with 25 or more employees who work in Massachusetts is 0.88% of eligible wages. For employers with fewer than 25 employees who work in Massachusetts, the 2024 MA PFML premium contribution is 0.46% of eligible wages. The emplo

On September 29, 2023, the Maryland Department of Labor announced the initial contribution rate for the new Family and Medical Leave Insurance (FAMLI) program, also known as the Time to Care Act. The rate will be 0.90% of covered wages up to the Social Security wage base (currently $160,200) and will be evenly split between employees and employers, each contributing 0.45% of covered wages. Smaller employers with 14 or fewer employees are exempt from making employer contributions. Employees of t

On September 15, 2023, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection amended rules related to the city’s Earned Sick and Safe Time Act (ESSTA). The changes, effective on October 15, 2023, are designed to better align the rules with the state’s paid sick leave law. Since 2014, New York City has required private employers with five or more employees to provide a certain amount of job-protected paid sick leave to employees who work in the city. Subsequently, the permissible reason

The NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) announced the 2024 Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) and Family Leave Insurance (FLI) contribution rates and maximum weekly benefit amounts. Below are the 2024 contribution rates for employees who work in NJ:   2024 2023 TDI 0.00% 0.00% FLI 0.09% 0.06% As the above chart shows, in 2024, there will be no employee contribution for TDI, but an employee contribution rate of 0.09% applies for FLI. Employers are

Medicare Part D Creditable Coverage notices must be distributed to all "Part D eligible individuals" who are "enrolled in or seeking to enroll" in the employer's prescription drug plan. The notice is due annually by October 14 and discloses whether the plan’s prescription drug coverage is creditable (i.e., whether, on average, the prescription drug coverage pays benefits at least equal to the benefits available through the Medicare prescription drug benefit). Part D eligible individuals include

Over the past few years, various transparency laws have gone into effect that require hospitals and payers across the healthcare system to post their negotiated commercial prices, all as part of a larger effort to make medical costs less opaque.