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
FEMA Releases New Flood Insurance Rates by ZIP Code. Brace for Impact.
“When the Federal Emergency Management Agency unveiled its new Risk Rating 2.0 methodology for calculating flood insurance, advocates and critics alike warned that it would mean higher premiums for thousands of property owners, especially in low-elevation coastal areas. Now, the full impact of the sticker shock is becoming clear, thanks to new data released by FEMA that shows price increases – and decreases – by county and by ZIP codes. For some parts of Florida, including the appropriately named Hell Gate on the East Coast, flood insurance will spike an average of 342%, according to the Miami Herald, which analyzed some of the data.” Full Article
– Insurance Journal
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, HUMAN RESOURCES, & COMPLIANCE
Payor/Provider Convergence and What it Means for You “Health care providers are increasingly taking financial risk in their contracts with health insurance companies and, in turn, health insurance companies are becoming more involved in the delivery of care.” Full Article – Foley & Lardner LLP
PHIPAA Privacy Rule Changes Coming in 2023: Five Steps to Prepare “If HHS finalizes the Proposed Rule as written, HIPAA-covered entities and business associates must update their privacy policies and procedures, security standards, notices of privacy practices (NPP), authorization and disclosure forms, and business associate agreements, among other documents, to reflect the modifications required by the rulemaking.” Full Article – McGuireWoods
IRS Chief Counsel Discusses Cafeteria Plan Substantiation Rules “The IRS Office of Chief Counsel has issued Memorandum Number 202317020 to explain the substantiation rules for claims made under health and dependent care FSAs by means of six commonly encountered factual situations, in five of which it concludes that the plan is not a cafeteria plan and the reimbursement is not shielded from income and employment taxes.” Full Article – The Wagner Law Group
Evolving Laws and Litigation Post-Dobbs: The State of Reproductive Rights as of May 2023 “It has been almost a year since the US Supreme Court returned the question of abortion to the states, resulting in a proliferation of legislation across the country banning, restricting, expanding, or protecting access to abortion. Employers will need to continue monitoring this area closely to ensure that their policies and benefit plans comply with state and federal requirements.” Full Article – Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Can a Telehealth-Only Plan Continue After the End of the COVID-19 Emergency? “If the PHE ends on May 11, 2023, a calendar year telehealth-only plan could remain covered by the exemption until the end of 2023. But if the plan year is, for example, June 1-May 31, the relief applies only until the end of the current plan year on May 31, 2023; as of June 1, 2023, that plan would have to comply with the preventive services mandate and the prohibition on annual and lifetime limits.” Full Article – Thomson Reuters/EBIA
First Circuit Holds Blue Cross Was Not a Fiduciary When it Allegedly Overpaid, Reprices, and Mishandled Benefit Claims “The court was unpersuaded by the arguments of the Fund and its amici (including the DOL) that finding Blue Cross to be a nonfiduciary would lead to anticompetitive practices that concededly could harm plans and their participants. Thus, based on ERISA’s far from pellucid statutory definition of fiduciary, the First Circuit allowed Blue Cross to evade fiduciary responsibility to the tune of $1.4 million in plan losses caused by its medical claims pricing and payment practices.” Full Article – Kantor & Kantor LLP
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.
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey’s Temporary Workers’ Bill of Rights is First in the Nation to Require Equal Pay for Temporary Workers
“This new law, the most expansive of its kind in the nation, provides ‘temporary workers’ with new rights and protections, including the right to receive pay equal to that of regular employees.” Full Article
– Ford Harrison
CALIFORNIA
On-Call/Standby Time: Do We Really Have to Pay Employees When They Are Not Working?
“Disputes regarding whether employees are entitled to be paid for time spent engaged in certain activities are increasingly common, and claims alleging that employees should be paid for time spent ‘on call’ or ‘on standby’ are prime examples.” Full Article
– Hopkins & Carley
California Lawmakers Vote in Favor of Defamation Protection for Sexual Assault Survivors
“Following the #MeToo movement, experts noted an uptick in defamation lawsuits against accusers. These lawsuits are typically brought by the accused and seem aimed at rehabilitating their reputations and, some would say, silencing the victims.” Full Article
– Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz P.C.
INDIANA
Indiana Bans Physician Non-Competes for Primary Care Physicians, Adds Restrictions for Others
“Indiana’s legislature has passed an amendment, Senate Enrolled Act No. 7. Senate Enrolled Act No. 7 would invalidate a significantly broader category of physician non-compete agreements entered into on or after July 1, 2023. Governor Eric Holcomb is expected to sign the bill into law.” Full Article
– Jackson Lewis P.C.
NEW YORK
CLIENT ALERT: New York Department of Labor Finalizes Updates to the State’s Model Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy
“The updated model policy was developed consistent with a law that went into effect on October 9, 2018, which requires New York employers to either adopt and disseminate written sexual harassment prevention policies that meet or exceed the minimum standards set forth in Section 201-G of the New York Labor law or adopt the model policy published by the NYDOL.” Full Article
– Morgan, Brown & Joy LLP
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