HR Regulation

In finalizing its payment policies, CMS has bumped up payments to Medicare Advantage plans to 3.3% in 2024, slightly above the 1% raise that it proposed.

Under the current language of the proposed rule, the ban would apply retroactively, so employers would have to notify current and former employees that the agreement is no longer valid.

The ruling, which applies nationwide and takes effect immediately, mandates that insurers and employers are not required to cover certain free preventive screenings for cancer, heart disease and other diseases under Obamacare.

A handbook is of little value if it is not regularly updated - and reviewed by counsel - to comply with changes in the law or the ever-evolving, post-pandemic world and to set the tone for company culture.

"Be wary," Duane Morris Partner Gerald Maatman said. "The NLRB has employer practices on the radar screen, and assumptions about well-settled labor decisions are now being reexamined."

Oil and gas company field technicians, who worked 84 hours a week or more, were considered exempt from the federal law addressing overtime pay because they were primarily administrative employees.