Mental Health Parity Act Effective Date Delayed Until January 2010

New requirements for employee health care plans originally scheduled to go into effect next month now have been delayed for at least a few more months. Congress has deferred the effective date of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPA) until January 2010. The MHPA does not require health insurance plans to provide [...]

New FMLA Standards Applicable: Some Employees May Be Entitled to Up To 26 Unpaid Weeks Leave

On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law new FMLA leave entitlements for military families (“military family leave provisions”). The National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 amended the FMLA to provide two new types of unpaid military family leave for FMLA-eligible employees: “qualifying exigency leave” and “military caregiver leave.” Both types of leave [...]

Introducing GINA New Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

President Bush is expected to sign into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) passed last week by Congress. The new law, which has been debated in Congress for 13 years, adds to current federal anti-discrimination laws (including Title VII) prohibitions on employers and insurance companies using genetic tests showing people are at risk of [...]

“Alert: New Form I-9 Effective Immediately”

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), which enforces federal employment verification requirements, has issued the first updated Form I-9 since 1991. Devised to help employers verify that every new employee is either a U.S. citizen or authorized to work in the U.S., the law requires that the new Form I-9 be used for all [...]

U.S. SUPREME COURT HEARS ARGUMENT ON HOME HEALTH WORKER EXEMPTION UNDER WAGE AND HOUR LAWS.

Long Island Care at Home vs. Coke, a federal case concerning home health worker compensation, got its second hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 16, 2007. Before the justices: the validity of a longstanding Department of Labor regulation regarding “companionship services” provided by third parties (read: home health agencies) “to the care of [...]

DADS Mandates Employer Implemented Policies Addressing Fraud and False Claims Laws, Including Whistleblower Protections

DADS issued Information Letter 07-50 on May 10, 2007, requiring all Home and Community-Based (HCS) and Texas Home Living (TxHmL) Providers educate employees, contractors, and agents about federal and state fraud and false claims laws, and the whistleblower protections available under those laws. The mandate comes from the employee educational requirements under Section 6032 of [...]

New EEO-1 Forms and Regulations – September 30th Deadline

The Employer Information Report, commonly known as the EEO-1 Report, has finally gotten a major makeover that affects what information you must collect about your employees and how you collect it. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) revised the form in response to additions made to racial and ethnic categories collected for the 2000 census [...]

Pay for Travel Time Under the FLSA comin’-and-goin’

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes minimum wage and overtime pay requirements for non-exempt employees. (Non-exempt employees are those who are (a) not paid on a salary basis, and/or (b) not employed in an executive, administrative, professional or outside sales capacity.) The FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt employees the minimum wage for all [...]

U.S. Supreme Court to Address Companionship Exemption Under FLSA

In mid-2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the first federal appellate court holding that the companionship services exemption under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) could not be used by home health agencies to avoid paying its home care attendants minimum wage and overtime pay. (Coke v Long [...]

Inch-by-Inch: The Fair Minimum Wage Act passes the House of Representatives

As proposed by the House of Representatives, minimum wage requirements would increase from the current standard of $5.15 to $7.25 in approximately three years. Introduced by Representative George Miller, the Fair Minimum Wage Act passed the House by 315-116 on January 10, 2007, and is expected to affect up to 13 million of America’s minimum [...]

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