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An employer/plan administrator that tried to make good on a COBRA administrative error got more reinforcement that its efforts greatly minimized its legal liability. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the fact that the aggrieved qualified beneficiary received two years of free health coverage effectively cancelled out any need to impose penalties for […]
Although it admitted no wrongdoing, an employer and plan administrator agreed to pay a $1.3 million settlement to a group of former employees who alleged they never received COBRA election or premium subsidy information after their involuntary termination of employment in 2010. In addition to COBRA and premium subsidy notice claims, they also sued the […]
Gillihan, who is Counsel in the Atlanta office of Alston & Bird LLP, made his suggestions at a recent webinar sponsored by BLR/HRHero. Complying with the Women’s Health Preventive Care Requirement First of all, employers should already be complying with women’s health preventive care requirements, in effect January 1 for calendar plan years, says Gillilan. […]
“Pay or play” refers to the idea that employers must either provide healthcare insurance coverage that is above a certain standard (yet affordable for all employees), or they must pay a penalty for failing to provide such coverage. This will start on January 1, 2014. This is just one of the many issues employers are […]
A former employee argued that her former employer, which employed fewer than 20 employees (and thus was exempt from COBRA) for eight months of the year, formed an affiliated service group with another employer and thus employed more than 20 employees for four months of that year. Thus, she contended the employer became subject to […]
How can employers protect themselves and reduce the likelihood of retaliation claims when disciplining or terminating an employee who has previously filed a workers’ compensation claim? If a claim of retaliation is feared, what evidence will help prove the employer acted legally?
Typically, interference with an employee’s COBRA coverage rights raises legal claims under ERISA; however, employers should take heed that in some instances other federal laws are invoked. Recently, an employer was found to have violated federal labor law when it engaged in an unlawful lockout of union employees that included the cancellation of their health […]
Here’s a reminder that for COBRA compliance purposes, small employers must count their employee population differently if they are under common control. Recently, an employer was sued for providing just three, rather than 18, months of COBRA coverage. Because it had a workforce of fewer than 20 employees, the employer tried to fend off those […]
An employer/plan administrator continues to get an expensive lesson on the risks of having both inadequate COBRA notice procedures and poor explanations of how those procedures work. An “inefficient, unwieldy” notice process — coupled with evasive and contradictory answers from employees on why a qualified beneficiary did not receive a COBRA election notice — led […]
Mentoring, on the other hand, is far more personal and friendship-based, offering non-judgmental support as a positive role model and focusing on a mentee’s longer term personal development. The mentor makes suggestions. The relationship is neither formally evaluated nor connected to job advancement but rather to personal improvement. According to Lois J. Zachary, President of […]