Entering in a business sphere, you’ll need a trustful legal team to enable your business running smoothly. Big companies have legal teams, while entrepreneurs can engage a single business lawyer to help them. Various difficulties can occur, and often the problem arises within the organization and comes from employees. You have to protect your employees, but your interest too, so the hiring of a person, who is familiar with legal activities and who will be your representative in contact with workers, is a score.

Provide Regular Income for Your Employees

When you hire someone, your worker should help you with goal and profit realization. You’ll pay them for their work; they have the right to fair compensation and work conditions, and the employer is obliged to respect this right. Except for standard working hours, there are payments for overtime, various benefits, annual vacations, sick leave, etc.

Workplace fairness is a must, and read here what you should adhere to: https://www.workplacefairness.org/workplace-bill-of-rights.

Lawsuits for non-payment of overtime are quite often. In agreement with the corporate attorney, employers should implement systems to determine the number of working hours. Thus, both sides will have the proof in case of the lawsuit. [Read more…]

By Shane Whitlatch

By the time you have the flu, it’s too late to get the vaccine. The idea behind vaccines, of course, is a pre-emptive strike against illness. In the same vein, proactive preparation for an audit is a much better plan than scrambling for documentation once you’ve received notice of an impending audit.

The good news is that you don’t have to guess what an audit entails. Requirements for various regulations are widely available, so you can make sure you’re compliant in advance. For instance, in the case of an Office of Civil Rights (OCR) HIPAA audit, you can start preparing long before the notification letter hits your mailbox.

You may not be selected for a random HIPAA audit, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore compliance, of course. You can still face penalties for noncompliance if you experience a patient complaint or a breach. Taking the opportunity to proactively strengthen your privacy and compliance program will help you maintain control of your patient data and avoid compliance headaches that are costly and time-consuming. [Read more…]

By Kyle Laudadio

The fast-growing wearable and app subsectors of virtual care generally operate with lighter regulation than that governing the technology that healthcare providers prescribe, recommend or use in their facilities. That said, the more widespread wearables and apps become, the more likely it is that ‘regulation by litigation’ will grow, as plaintiffs’ attorneys probe the numerous potential liabilities attaching to the use of these new technologies.     

The commercial potential of devices (often wearables) and apps that can help consumers achieve wellness and lifestyle goals is clear. Healthcare is focused increasingly on preventing and minimizing the incidence and impact of chronic conditions among populations in both the developed and developing world. The connectivity of devices and their ability to track, analyze and share data is driving significant growth in this sector. [Read more…]

By Matt Dumiak

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the California State Legislature has passed, and the California Governor has signed, amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Having previously been a ballot initiative, one of the main drivers to get the CCPA passed as traditional legislation was to allow the law to go through the standard legislative process as opposed to the previous ballot initiative which would have made the law difficult and arduous to amend.

First, the legislature gave the California AG some additional time to develop the implementing law as well as pushed back the enforcement date by up to six months which will be no later than July 1, 2020, for now. While the enforcement date could be set before July 1, 2020, we will have to wait and see when the regulation is implemented by the AG. Companies should be preparing to be compliant by January 1, 2020 and be standing by for enforcement by July 1, 2020. [Read more…]

Summary Of Employer Shared Responsibility Payments (“ESRPs”)

By Melissa Shimizu

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), applicable large employers (ALEs) are required to offer full-time employees minimum essential health care coverage that is affordable and provides minimum value. If they do not, and a full-time employee receives a premium tax credit to purchase individual coverage through a marketplace, the employer may be assessed an employer shared responsibility payment (ESRP).  The amount of the penalty depends on the number of full-time employees to which the ALE made an offer of coverage.

If an ALE makes an offer of coverage to fewer than 95 percent of its full-time employees, and one or more full-time employees receive a premium tax credit, the ESRP in 2015 is generally equal to the number of full-time employees minus 80 (because there was transitional relief available in 2015), multiplied by $2,260.  This is called the subsection (a) penalty because it comes from Section 4980H(a).  For plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2016, the aforementioned transitional relief was not available and the ESRP calculation will only be reduced by 30 employees, rather than 80.

If, however, it makes an offer of coverage to at least 95 percent of its full-time employees, and one or more of its full-time employees receives a premium tax credit, the ESRP is calculated for each month. This is called the subsection (b) penalty because it comes from Section 4980H(b).  For 2015, the amount of the ESRP for any given month is equivalent to the number of full-time employees who received a premium tax credit for that month multiplied by one-twelfth of $2,080.



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