The RISQ RECAP:

September 11th – September 15th, 2023

California Lawmakers Approve Nation’s Most Sweeping Emissions Disclosure Rules for Big Business

“Major corporations from oil and gas companies to retail giants would have to disclose their direct greenhouse gas emissions as well as those that come from activities like employee business travel under legislation passed by California lawmakers, the most sweeping mandate of its kind in the nation. The legislation would require thousands of public and private businesses that operate in California and make more than $1 billion annually to report their direct and indirect emissions. The goal is to increase transparency and nudge companies to evaluate how they can cut their emissions.”  Full Article

– Insurance Journal

Google’s Search Dominance Challenged in Biggest Antitrust Trial in Decades

“Google has exploited its dominance of the internet search market to lock out competitors and smother innovation, the Department of Justice charged Tuesday at the opening of the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century. “This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” said Kenneth Dintzer, the Justice Department’s lead litigator. Over the next 10 weeks, federal lawyers and state attorneys general will try to prove Google rigged the market in its favor by locking its search engine in as the default choice in a plethora of places and devices. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta likely won’t issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.”  Full Article

– Insurance Journal

Illinois Enacts Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits Requirement

“Beginning January 1, 2024, certain employers located within designated Illinois counties and townships will be required to provide employees a ‘pre-tax commuter benefit.’ Employers must allow covered employees to use pre-tax dollars for the purchase of a transit pass through payroll deduction. A transit pass is any pass, token, care card, and the like entitling the employee to take public transit.”  Full Article

– Jackson Lewis P.C.

You May Need to Lower Employees’ Premiums to Keep Plans Affordable Under the ACA

“The authors are seeing an increased focus on ACA compliance and expect to see a ramp up in employer penalty notification. A failure to consider whether your plan is affordable when passing through any premium increases could result in an unintended penalty for each employee who enrolls in exchange coverage and qualifies for financial assistance.”  Full Article

– Bricker Graydon

New Federal Rules Seek to Strengthen Mental Health Parity

“Although MHPAEA has been in effect for more than a decade now, regulators enforcing the law have often struggled to narrow the many gaps in access between MHSUD and medical/surgical benefits …This proposed rule makes the NQTL standard more prescriptive and incorporates outcomes data, and if finalized would represent a significant step forward in MHPAEA enforcement.”  Full Article

– Health Affairs Forefront

District Court Dismisses Employees’ COBRA Notice Claims, Save One (Involving COVID-19)

“In litigation involving an employer’s alleged notice violations under COBRA, a district court rejected almost all of the employees’ claims for why the notices were deficient. In the one claim that survived dismissal, an employee who was terminated in June 2020 alleged that the employer’s COBRA election notice failed to state an enrollment deadline that accurately reflected COVID-19-related time extensions.”  Full Article

– Thomson Reuters Practical Law

5 Things to Know About the New Drug Pricing Negotiations

“The long-term consequences of the new policy are unknown. One theory is that reducing the prices drug companies can charge in Medicare will lead them to increase prices for the privately insured. Another theory is that Medicare price negotiations will equip private health plans to drive a harder bargain. Even though negotiated prices won’t take effect until 2026, drug companies haven’t wasted time turning to the courts to try to stop the new program in its tracks.”  Full Article

– KFF Health News

Circuit Court Holds ERISA Preempts State PBM Regulation

“The court’s opinion distinguished the case from Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), in which the Supreme Court held that an Arkansas law requiring PBMs to tie their reimbursement rates to pharmacies’ costs was not preempted by ERISA because it did not dictate plan choices. The 10th Circuit reasoned that, whereas the Arkansas law at issue in Rutledge merely resulted in an increase of costs for the PBM, the Act goes further by potentially having a direct effect on a plan’s network design, and therefore ‘governs a central matter of plan administration.’”  Full Article

– Slevin & Hart, P.C.