Compliance

The rules will require most government contractors to set a goal of having disabled workers make up at least 7 percent of their employees. The benchmark for veterans would be 8 percent.

Congress or the courts may still have more work to do before the VA can start providing federal benefits to married, same-sex couples.

Wal-Mart, America's single-biggest employer outside of the U.S. federal government, has announced that in 2014 it will begin offering health care benefits to employees' domestic partners.

The Seattle-based caffeine vendor, which employs 150,000 full-time workers worldwide and many thousands more in part-time positions, says it will not try to shift full-time workers to part-time status in order to avoid paying healthcare costs as required by the PPACA.

In the run-up to the Oct. 1 launch of the state insurance exchanges, the National Journal asked how important the first days of the exchanges would prove to be. The answer: Not at all.

There are specific criteria a plan must meet to retain grandfathered status. And, according to United Benefit Advisors, there are benefits to converting to a fully PPACA-complaint coverage design.