Each week, you’ll find specially curated news articles to keep you up to date on the ever-evolving world of insurance and risk management. The articles are divided out between items relevant to Property & Casualty, Employee Benefits/Human Resources, and Compliance. We’ve included brief summaries of each item as well as a link to the original articles.
PROPERTY & CASUALTY
Tesla Competing With ‘GEICOs of the World’ to Lower Insurance Prices
“While executives of Tesla said the car maker’s insurance business isn’t yet big enough to warrant separate financial disclosure of its results, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk reiterated a benefit for Tesla owners: cheaper premiums. Speaking on an earnings conference call Wednesday, Musk said that “just by Tesla operating insurance for our cars at a competitive rate, that makes the other car insurance companies offer better rates for Teslas.” In other words, Tesla being in the insurance business “has a bigger effect than you think” because it lowers the cost of insurance even for Tesla drivers who don’t buy insurance coverage from Tesla. That’s because “now the GEICOs of the world have to compete with Tesla and cannot charge outrageous insurance for Teslas,” Musk asserted.” Full Article
– Insurance Journal
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, HUMAN RESOURCES, & COMPLIANCE
Workplace Wellness Trends to Watch in 2023 “Hybrid work will be here to stay, along with the rise of the four-day work week.. Mental well-being has taken center stage, the labor movement will grow, and well-being is considered a shared responsibility.” Full Article – HR Daily Advisor
Employer Health Plans Face Competition for High Quality Doctors “Employer-sponsored commercial plans, which cover about 157 million people in the US, typically pay higher rates for health-care services than Medicare’s fee-for-service system, which pays for each individual service. But Medicare Advantage, a private plan alternative to traditional Medicare, is rapidly gaining popularity, covering more than 28 million people in 2022.” Full Article – Bloomberg Law
Health Savings Account Balances, Contributions, Distributions, and Other Vital Statistics, 2021 “Despite a rebound in out-of-pocket health care spending in 2021, HSA balances increased on average over the course of the year. Accounts that received an employer contribution saw higher total contributions and were more likely to invest. Most accountholders took a distribution in 2021. Age and tenure play a major role in HSA utilization.” Full Article – Employee Benefit Research Institute
What the Inflation Reduction Act’s Reforms to Medicare Part D Mean for Prescription Drug Prices “Much has been written about the act’s individual provisions, but little has been said about how they fit together as a whole. In fact, these seemingly standalone reforms act together to reshape access and affordability of branded prescription drugs under Medicare Part D, while also leaving the door open to further reforms.” Full Article – Health Affairs Forefront
Reductions in Force: COBRA and Internal Revenue Code Considerations “If an employer intends for the COBRA continuation period to run concurrently with the subsidized coverage from the date of the qualifying event, the severance documentation should make this clear, and COBRA notices should be sent accordingly. Otherwise, the employee may mistakenly believe and argue that the COBRA continuation coverage begins when the subsidy ends.” Full Article – Walters Kluwer
Court Holds the Health Insurer’s TPA Activities Are Subject to ACA Section 1557 “The court held that under the plain language of Section 1557, the insurer’s TPA activities constitute the operation of a health program or activity. The insurer argued that under the 2020 regulations, Section 1557 does not apply to its TPA activities because those actions are not ‘healthcare activities’ and because it does not receive any federal financial assistance for them, but the court rejected those arguments, explaining that the 2020 regulations are clearly contrary to the statute and appear to be arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law.” Full Article – Thomson Reuters/ EBIA
STATE & INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE
In addition to the RISQ Review, RISQ Consulting also provides a resource that features changes and updates to State and International Compliance measures. We’ve included brief summaries of each item below, and also provided links to the original articles if you’d like to read further.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: New Jersey Implements Long-Delayed Landmark WARN law “On January 10, 2023, Governor Philip D. Murphy signed into law S3162/ A4768, which makes the 2020 amendments to NJ WARN effective 90 days from his signature, irrespective of whether a State of Emergency still exists.” Full Article – Littler Mendelson P.C.NEW JERSEY
Challenges and Opportunities in California’s New Pay Transparency Rules “California’s new pay transparency rules generally fall into three disclosure categories: job-posting requirements, pay scale requests and pay data disclosures. For new hire job postings, employers with 15 or more employees must disclose the reasonably expected pay scale, both for salaried and hourly employees.” Full Article – Duane Morris LLPCALIFORNIA
New York Requires Employers to Provide Electronic Versions of Mandatory Workplace Postings “Before the amendment, the law required that certain legal notices be posted conspicuously in the workplace. Now, employers must also make digital versions of the physical notices available, either on the employer’s website or via email.” Full Article – Cooley LLPNEW YORK
Maryland Expands the Scope of Conduct that Constitutes Sexual Harassment in the Workplace “Recently, Maryland Senate Bill 450 (SB 450) went into effect, revising the definition of sexual harassment in the workplace by changing the standard of sexual harassment from “severe or pervasive” conduct to the “totality of the circumstances” in sexual harassment cases.” Full Article – Shulman RogersMARYLAND
Illinois Legislature Passes Paid Leave for All Workers Act “On January 10, 2023, the Illinois Legislature passed the Paid Leave for All Workers Act (“Act”), which Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has also announced his intention to sign. The Act will take effect on January 1, 2024, and it provides nearly all Illinois workers with a minimum of forty (40) hours, or a pro-rated number of hours, of paid leave during a designated 12-month period.” Full Article – Thompson Hine LLPILLINOIS
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