Employers Now Have 2 Clear Options to Provide Vaccine Incentives Thanks to New EEOC Guidance

The EEOC kicked off the unofficial start of summer with a bang by clearing the way for employers to offer their employees incentives to get the COVID-19 vaccine in new guidance released on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend. The May 28 updates to the agency’s COVID-19 Technical Assistance guidance now provides employers with two clear options, drawing a key distinction based on who administers the shot:

1. If your employees voluntarily provide documentation confirming they have been vaccinated and got the shot on their own from a pharmacy, public health department, or other health care provider in the community, you can offer them any incentive you’d like with no apparent limitations.
2. If your organization (or an entity acting on your organization’s behalf) administers the vaccine, you can still offer incentives – but they cannot be so substantial in value as to be considered coercive.

Regardless of which path you travel, there are still hoops to jump through if you want to provide vaccine incentives – providing accommodations, ensuring confidentiality, etc. – but you now have a clear direction to take to encourage your workers towards vaccination. What do you need to know about this critical update?

Why Was This Guidance Necessary?

Before we take a deeper dive into discussing the options and other considerations, some employers may be wondering why this guidance was even necessary. Couldn’t you just offer some cash or PTO or some other reward to induce employee behavior without concern about the legal ramifications?

The main sticking point troubling employers for months concerned wellness program rules. Historically, the EEOC has indicated it didn’t want employers to force employees to make medical-related decisions through the use of incentives. Until this latest guidance, the EEOC believed that too significant of an incentive could coerce employees to participate, thus leading to legal violations if employees are “forced” to disclose protected medical information to gain the incentive. Through rules, guidance, and federal litigation, the EEOC has taken steps to ensure that any employment decisions in this regard were genuinely voluntary.

Earlier this year, the EEOC issued a proposed rule expressly permitting only de minimis incentives as passing muster under participatory wellness programs. The proposed rule contained language referring to a permissible incentive as a “water bottle” or something of equivalent value. However, the Biden administration withdrew the proposed rule under a regulatory freeze typically seen when new leadership takes charge at the White House. The proposed rule is still pending review and it is unclear when or what form it may re-emerge. Against the backdrop of this uncertainty, employers have been attempting to navigate the thorny path of vaccine incentives, concerned that offering robust incentives could bring about a higher legal risk. At the urging of business groups seeking clarity on the matter, the EEOC finally heeded the call and provided the certainty that employers have been craving.  

Option 1: Unlimited Incentives

Under the first option, you are seemingly permitted to provide unlimited incentives to your workforce so long as your employees voluntarily provide you with documentation or other confirmation they received the COVID-19 vaccine, and they received the vaccination on their own from a third-party provider that is not an “agent” of your organization. The EEOC describes such third parties as pharmacies, public health departments, or other health care providers in the community.

Option 2: Restricted Incentives

On the other hand, if employees are voluntarily vaccinated by you or your “agent,” you can offer only incentives that are “not so substantial as to be coercive.” Which leads to two questions: what is an “agent,” and how substantial is “substantial”?

Definition of “Agent” and How to Avoid This Designation

• The EEOC guidance defines “agent” as being an individual or entity having the authority to act on behalf of, or at the direction of, the employer (which could include an onsite nurse, onsite medical staff, and perhaps beyond).  
• The agency further notes that the purpose for this distinction is that it would prefer employers to stay as far away from employee medical examinations as possible, and administering vaccines requires necessary pre-shot screening questions that could reveal information it would rather you not obtain. “When an employer asks employees whether they obtained a COVID-19 vaccine from a third party in the community, such as a pharmacy, personal health care provider, or public clinic,” the EEOC says, “the employer is not asking a question that is likely to disclose the existence of a disability.” Of course, care should continue to be taken not to ask follow-up questions such as why the employee has not been vaccinated or whether the employee suffered side effects of the vaccine.
• Thus, to avoid the incentive limitation that arises in such a situation, you would want to do everything you could to keep a wall up between you and the healthcare provider offering the vaccines – especially if you are setting up a vaccine clinic at your worksite to make it as easy as possible for your workers to get inoculated. Unnecessary entanglements could arise if you gather medical information about your employees, assist with screening questions, or include an onsite nurse or other medical staff members to aid the healthcare provider in administering the shots. In a perfect world, you would limit your involvement to setting up a sign-up link to organize the schedule and giving your vaccine provider access to the information generated by the link. The “sign up” link and employee-facing communications should be self-serving in this regard. You could even state in the sign-up link that “Your responses cannot be shared with anyone, including your employer, without your authorization. This form is not such an authorization.” You may also want to consider an arms-length written agreement with the vaccine provider confirming that it does not have the authority to act on your behalf or at your direction.

Definition of “Substantial” and How to Avoid Violations

• But if your organization or your agent is administering the vaccine, and you are interested in offering incentives, you will need to carefully thread the needle between offering a strong enough incentive to encourage employees but one not so strong that it could be considered coercive. You will want to tip the scale to help employees to choose to get vaccinated without twisting their arms.
• Unfortunately, the EEOC does not provide detail or a definition regarding what might be considered too substantial, leaving you to navigate this terrain based on your own comfort and risk tolerance level. And this is not a term of art that the EEOC has often – if ever – used in this context. It appears that the term “substantial” would permit you to offer incentives at some level higher than a de minimis amount – higher than the “water bottle or its equivalent” level typically associated with incentives – but there is no clear answer about where to draw the line.
• A rule of thumb to keep in mind: the higher the value, the greater the risk your program will be seen as unnecessarily coercive and therefore in violation of the EEOC’s rules. There are a number of factors to consider when making this determination, including your geographic location, your industry, the median pay of your workforce, and other relevant factors.

Other Considerations

Whichever path you take, there are several other considerations to keep in mind when offering vaccine incentives based on voluntary inoculations.

Accommodations

Some employees may have legitimate medical or religious reasons not to get vaccinated, and failure to provide them with the same types of incentives could lead to claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Title VII. You will need to consider offering alternative means by which an employee can earn an incentive if they cannot be vaccinated due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief. Alternative ways to earn the incentive might be watching a workplace COVID-19 safety video or reviewing CDC literature on mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in the workforce.

Confidentiality

Once you gather information from employees about whether they have been vaccinated or not, you must maintain confidentiality. You should maintain the records as you would any other medical-related documentation (in a separate file, accessible to only those who need to know, etc.) and comply with all other state-specific privacy rules (such as in California).

Family Members

While you can offer an incentive to employees to provide documentation or other confirmation from a third party not acting on your behalf that their family members have been vaccinated, the EEOC confirmed that you may not offer incentives to your employees in return for their family members getting vaccinated by your organization or your agent. This would be considered a violation of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) Title II health and genetic services provision. Asking pre-screening medical questions would lead to you receiving genetic information in the form of family medical history of the employee, and GINA regulations prohibit employers from providing incentives in exchange for genetic information. However, you can still offer an employee’s family member the opportunity to be vaccinated by your organization or your agent if you take certain steps to ensure GINA compliance. 

Possible Incentives to Consider

If you are now considering what kind of incentives to offer your workforce in light of this new guidance, you might find comfort knowing that employers’ two most common incentive options include cash/gifts (38%) and paid time off (30%). This is according to an FP Flash Survey conducted earlier this year, which found that more than one in five employers were providing vaccine incentives. That number is bound to rise given that close to half of all respondents (43%) said they were unsure about whether to offer some form of incentive, many commenting that the then-current legal uncertainty fueled their hesitancy.

 

Fitness Wearables: Are They Just a Shiny Penny in Employee Wellness?

Fitness wearables are hot right now—from trackers to watches to smart clothing from Ralph Lauren—it seems everyone wants to be part of the fitness wearables party. According to recent research, the wearables market keeps growing for both employers and consumers. 

Consider the facts:

• 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 18 owns a fitness tracker
• 46% of employers in a recent survey said they offer fitness trackers as part of their employee wellness programs
• By 2018, employers will integrate more than 13 million wearables into their employee wellness programs
• 41% of employers plan to spend more on technology in 2015—including wearable wellness technology
• More than 171 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2016, up from 14 million shipped in 2011

There are plenty of reasons consumers—including your employees—are embracing fitness wearables:

• Easy to use. Wearables make it fun and simple for employees to put their everyday routine to work toward their health and wellness goals.
• Saves time. Wearables can be a great fit for employees who have little time to track their health behaviors.
• Reinforces behavior change. Fitness wearables make it easy for employees to track changes in their health and monitor their progress.
• Fosters social connection. Wearables link participants to an online community of health—whether it is connecting with co-workers, friends or family.

While it’s clear that wearables have sparked an interest in employee health and wellness, do fitness trackers and wearables result in long-term behavior change for the individuals that wear them?

If you provide fitness trackers to your employees—or if you own a tracker yourself—you may know the excitement of wearing it the first day. Employees feel “cool,” tracking their steps and competing with their co-workers to keep them motivated. But when—and if—the fun factor wears off, some may lose interest.

Even the hottest fitness trackers fall victim to the “shiny penny syndrome,” where employees—and employers—are easily attracted to newest, latest and greatest tool only to lose interest when the next “shiny penny” comes along.

How long does interest in fitness wearables typically last? Just six months, according to a report from Endeavour Partners. The report states that after six months of use, one-third of consumers stop using their fitness wearable devices. And more than half of Americans who have owned a wearable activity tracker no longer use it.

When integrated into a corporate wellness strategy, wearables can make it easier for participants to track changes in their health and monitor their progress. And for some participants, wearable devices can serve as a critical spark to engage them in a journey towards better health.

However, research from the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that wearables alone cannot induce sustainable behavior change, but are best used as tools to support behavior change and to help people feel connected.

Creating an environment to make healthy choices easy for employees is equally important to improve employee health outcomes as the programs and services used to spark initial change.

New Guidance On Wellness Programs

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued proposed new rules  clarifying its stance on the interplay between the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and employer wellness programs. Officially called a “notice of proposed rulemaking” or NPRM, the new rules propose changes to the text of the EEOC’s ADA regulations and to the interpretive guidance explaining them. 

If adopted, the NPRM will provide employers guidance on how they can use financial incentives or penalties to encourage employees to participate in wellness programs without violating the ADA, even if the programs include disability-related inquiries or medical examinations.  This should be welcome news for employers, having spent nearly the past six years in limbo as a result of the EEOC’s virtual radio silence on this question.

A Brief History: How Did We Get Here?
In 1990, the ADA was enacted to protect individuals with ADA-qualifying disabilities from discrimination in the workplace.  Under the ADA, employers may conduct medical examinations and obtain medical histories as part of their wellness programs so long as employee participation in them is voluntary.  The EEOC confirmed in 2000 that it considers a wellness program voluntary, and therefore legal, where employees are neither required to participate in it nor penalized for non-participation.

Then, in 2006, regulations were issued that exempted wellness programs from the nondiscrimination requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) so long as they met certain requirements.  These regulations also authorized employers for the first time to offer financial incentives of up to 20% of the cost of coverage to employees to encourage them to participate in wellness programs. 

But between 2006 and 2009 the EEOC waffled on the legality of these financial incentives, stating that “the HIPAA rule is appropriate because the ADA lacks specific standards on financial incentives” in one instance, and that the EEOC was “continuing to examine what level, if any, of financial inducement to participate in a wellness program would be permissible under the ADA” in another.

Shortly thereafter, the 2010 enactment of President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), which regulates corporate wellness programs, appeared to put this debate to rest.  The ACA authorized employers to offer certain types of financial incentives to employees so long as the incentives did not exceed 30% of the cost of coverage to employees.

But in the years following the ACA’s enactment, the EEOC restated that it had not in fact taken any position on the legality of financial incentives.  In the wake of this pronouncement, employers were left understandably confused and uncertain.  To alleviate these sentiments, several federal agencies banded together and jointly issued regulations that authorized employers to reward employees for participating in wellness programs, including programs that involved medical examinations or questionnaires.  These regulations also confirmed the previously set 30%–of-coverage ceiling and even provided for incentives of up to 50%of coverage for programs related to preventing or reducing the use of tobacco products. 

After remaining silent about employer wellness programs for nearly five years, in August 2014, the EEOC awoke from its slumber and filed its very first lawsuit targeting wellness programs, EEOC v. Orion Energy Systems, alleging that they violate the ADA.  In the following months, it filed similar suits against Flambeau, Inc., and Honeywell International, Inc.  In EEOC v. Honeywell International, Inc., the EEOC took probably its most alarming position on the subject to date, asserting that a wellness program violates the ADA even if it fully complies with the ACA.

What’s In The NPRM?
According to EEOC Chair Jenny Yang, the purpose of the EEOC’s NPRM is to reconcile HIPAA’s authorization of financial incentives to encourage participation in wellness programs with the ADA’s requirement that medical examinations and inquiries that are part of them be voluntary.  To that end, the NPRM explains:

• what an employee wellness program is;

• what it means for an employee  wellness program to be voluntary;

• what incentives employers may offer as part of a voluntary employee wellness program; and

• what requirements apply concerning notice and confidentiality of medical information obtained as  part of voluntary employee wellness programs.

Each of these parts of the NPRM is briefly discussed below.

What is an employee wellness program?
In general, the term “wellness program” refers to a program or activity offered by an employer to encourage its employees to improve their health and to reduce overall health care costs.  For instance, one program might encourage employees to engage in healthier lifestyles, such as exercising daily, making healthier diet choices, or quitting smoking.  Another might obtain medical information from them by asking them to complete health risk assessments or undergo a screening for risk factors. 

The NPRM defines wellness programs as programs that are reasonably designed to promote health or prevent disease.  To meet this standard, programs must have a reasonable chance of improving the health of, or preventing disease in, its participating employees.  The programs also must not be overly burdensome, a pretext for violating anti-discrimination laws, or highly suspect in the method chosen to promote health or prevent disease.

How is voluntary defined?
The NPRM contains several requirements that must be met in order for participation in wellness programs to be voluntary.  Specifically, employers may not:

• require employees to participate in a wellness program;

• deny or limit coverage or particular benefits for non-participation in a wellness program; or

• take any adverse action against employees for non-participation in a wellness program or failure to achieve certain health outcomes. 

Additionally, for wellness programs that are part of a group health plan, employers must provide a notice to employees clearly explaining what medical information will be obtained, how it will be used, who will receive it, restrictions on its disclosure, and the protections in place to prevent its improper disclosure.

What incentives may you offer?
The NPRM clarifies that the offer of limited incentives is permitted and will not render wellness programs involuntary.  Under the NPRM, the maximum allowable incentive employers can offer employees for participation in a wellness program or for achieving certain health results is 30% of the total cost of coverage to employees who participate in it.  The total cost of coverage is the amount that the employer and the employee pay, not just the employee’s share of the cost.  The maximum allowable penalty employers may impose on employees who do not participate in the wellness program is the same. 

What about confidentiality?
The NPRM does not change any of the exceptions to the confidentiality provisions in the EEOC’s existing ADA regulations.  It does, however, add a new subsection that explains that employers may only receive information collected by wellness programs in aggregate form that does not disclose, and is not likely to disclose, the identity of the employees participating in it, except as may be necessary to administer the plan. 

Additionally, for a wellness program that is part of a group health plan, the health information that identifies an individual is “protected health information” and therefore subject to HIPAA.  HIPAA mandates that employers maintain certain safeguards to protect the privacy of such personal health information and limits the uses and disclosure of it.

Keep in mind that the NPRM revisions discussed above only clarify the EEOC’s stance regarding how employers can use financial incentives to encourage their employees to participate in employer wellness programs without violating the ADA.  It does not relieve employers of their obligation to ensure that their wellness programs comply with other anti-discrimination laws as well.

Is This The Law?
The NPRM is just a notice that alerts the public that the EEOC intends to revise its ADA regulations and interpretive guidance as they relate to employer wellness programs.  It is also an open invitation for comments regarding the proposed revisions.  Anyone who would like to comment on the NPRM must do so by June 19, 2015.  After that, the EEOC will evaluate all of the comments that it receives and may make revisions to the NPRM in response to them.  The EEOC then votes on a final rule, and once it is approved, it will be published in the Federal Register.

Since the NPRM is just a proposed rule, you do not have to comply with it just yet.  But our advice is that you bring your wellness program into compliance with the NPRM for a few reasons.  For one, it is very unlikely that the EEOC, or a court, would fault you for complying with the NPRM until the final rule is published.  Additionally, many of the requirements that are set forth in the NPRM are already required under currently existing law.  Thus, while waiting for the EEOC to issue its final rule, in the very least, you should make sure that you do not:

• require employees to participate in wellness programs;

• deny health insurance coverage to employees for non-participation in wellness programs; or

• take adverse employment action against employees for non-participation in wellness programs or for failure  to achieve certain health outcomes.

In addition you should provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities to enable them to participate in wellness programs and obtain any incentives offered (e.g., if an employer has a deaf employee and attending a diet and exercise class is part of its wellness program, then the employer should provide a sign language interpreter to enable the deaf employee to participate in the class); and ensure that any medical information is maintained in a confidential manner.

Healthcare Reform In A Nutshell: Top Five Concerns for Employers

Keeping up with changes under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a challenge for all employers. Here are the top five issues you should specifically pay attention to as healthcare reform rolls out.

 

The Employer Mandate

Under the ACA, large employers will be required to provide affordable healthcare insurance that meets minimum value to all full-time employees beginning in 2015. Final regulations issued in February clarify most aspects of how the mandate will be implemented.

 

The Individual Mandate

Beginning January 1, 2014, all individuals are required to carry qualified health insurance known as “minimum essential coverage” or face penalties when they file taxes in the spring of 2015. In 2014, the penalty for noncompliance will be the greater of $95 per uninsured person or 1% of household income over the filing threshold. This penalty will rise in 2015 and again in 2016.

 

Wellness Programs

As health insurance costs rise, wellness programs are gaining popularity, however be cautious when designing and maintaining a wellness program because they must conform to new ACA requirements and existing HIPAA nondiscrimination requirements.

 

Reporting Requirements

 

Beginning in the spring of 2016, large employers will face a new reporting requirement for the 2015 calendar year. The Form 6056 will ask for information including:

• Contact information for the employer;

• The number of full-time employees; and

• For each full-time employee, information about the coverage (if any) offered to the employee, by month, including the lowest employee cost of self-only coverage offered.

 

 

Automatic Enrollment And Nondiscrimination Regulations

Though enforcement of the automatic enrollment and nondiscrimination provisions of the ACA has not started, keep an eye out for regulations that will trigger compliance obligations. Employers with over 100 employees should anticipate that in the next few years, they will be required to automatically enroll all full-time employees for health insurance coverage.

 

In addition, employers who offer varying levels of coverage or employer-provided subsidies based on classes of employees need to watch for nondiscrimination regulations.

 

Please contact our office if you have any questions on how Healthcare Reform will affect you or your business.

Getting to Know GINA

Does your company currently use forms created more than three years ago that asks for information about an applicant or an employee’s family medical history?

 

Do your supervisors and managers know that if they are “friended” by an employee on a social media site and they see medical information relating to the individual or the individual’s family member, they have violated a federal law and subjected the company to liability?

 

Has your company failed to update Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), workers’ compensation, no-harassment, and other policies and procedures to comply with the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)? 

 

If you answered yes to any of these questions,  you should review the impact of GINA so your company does not become the next GINA “headline.”

 

What Is GINA?

 

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) has been an active federal law for five years now. However, many employers still know little about the law. Enacted in 2008, GINA generally prohibits employers from engaging in three types of conduct:

 

• Prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against an employee on the basis of the employee’s genetic information. “Genetic information” is rather broadly defined and includes information from genetic tests, the genetic tests of family members, and family medical history, but it does not include an individual’s race and ethnicity.

 

• Prohibits employers from requesting an employee’s genetic information, subject to certain exceptions.

 

• Prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee who has opposed a practice made unlawful by GINA.

 

Most attribute GINA’s enactment and requirements as a response to a trend in which employers sought to rely on genetic information in an attempt to screen out potentially unhealthy employees to help control their surging health care costs. 

 

Inadvertent Collection Of Genetic Information

Many employers today pay little attention to GINA on the mistaken assumption that they do not collect genetic information. But there are three very common situations in which an employer can unknowingly collect genetic information.
 

 

First, employers regularly request medical documentation to support a potentially disabled employee’s request for a reasonable accommodation.
 

 

Second, employers regularly request medical documentation to support an employee’s request for leave under FMLA.
 

 

Third, many employers require a medical examination upon hire and, as a result, receive medical information in that context.

 

In each of these situations, the employer might acquire genetic information (without intentionally requesting it) and would violate GINA as a result of doing so. Fortunately, GINA provides a “safe harbor” that can protect an employer in such situations.  

 

How To Avoid Noncompliance

 

When an employer requests medical information, it must warn the provider not to provide genetic information. When the employer makes such a warning, the “safe harbor” provision provides that any receipt of genetic information in response to their request will be deemed unintentional and not in violation of GINA.
  

As a result, it is imperative that employers include this specific warning any time that they request health-related information from a health care provider or an employee.
  

Of course, an employer could also obtain genetic information in a less formal situation. For example, a supervisor could obtain genetic information about an employee during a casual conversation, through email, or through social media. As long as the supervisor does not ask follow-up questions and does not take any employment-related action based on the accidentally acquired info, this information would be deemed unintentional. However, the use or disclosure of the accidentally acquired information would still violate GINA.

 

Does Your Wellness Program Violate GINA?

 

The federal regulations also make clear that an employer does not violate GINA if the employer requests genetic information as part of a “voluntary wellness program.”

 

For such a program to be deemed voluntary, the employer must show that:

• The employer does not require employees to provide genetic information (or penalize them for not providing it)

 

• The employee provided knowing, voluntary, and written authorization stating that the employee understands the type of genetic information to be obtained and how it will be used. Individually identifiable genetic information may be provided only to the health care professionals involved in providing the services.

 

Another reason that employers may be less knowledgeable about GINA (as compared to other federal laws) is that relatively few lawsuits have be filed since the law was enacted. According to EEOC statistics, there were just 280 charges of GINA-related discrimination filed in 2012, or around 0.3% of the overall charge filings for that year. However, the number of filed, GINA-related charges has increased by nearly 40% since the first year an individual could file under the statute.

 

Moreover, recent activity by the EEOC suggests that it would be best if employers begin reviewing their procedures now and taking the necessary steps to ensure they are GINA compliant.

Unknowing or unintentional violations of GINA are perhaps the most worrisome type of violations since they are the most likely to occur. This is particularly true for employers that rely on dated, pre-GINA human resources documents (including employment applications) or employment policies.
  

Employers should update existing nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policies and handbooks so that discrimination/harassment on the basis of genetic information is clearly prohibited. Similarly, employers should also update their Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forms to include the requisite “safe harbor” language that warns employees and health care providers not to provide genetic information.
 

Employers also should ensure that an employee’s medical information is maintained separately from the employee’s personnel file, as required by the law.

 

For further information on GINA and its impact on your business or for assistance on insuring your company is GINA compliant, please do not hesitate to contact our office. 

FAQs for Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FF-SHOP) on Tobacco Rating

CMS recently issued a list of FAQs regarding the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FF-SHOP aka Marketplace aka Exchange) and how they will handle the issue of tobacco rating for medical plans.

 

Q1: If an employee or an employee’s dependent obtaining coverage through the FF-SHOP uses tobacco, how can the employee or dependent avoid the tobacco premium rating surcharge?

 

A1: The FF-SHOPs will not impose the tobacco rating surcharge at the time of initial enrollment (or re-enrollment) if the employee or dependent, as applicable, agrees at the time of enrollment (or renewal or re-enrollment) to participate in a wellness program meeting the standards of section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, such as a tobacco cessation program.

 

Q2: If an employee or enrollee’s dependent who is already enrolled in coverage through the FF-SHOP decides to participate in a wellness program in the middle of the plan year after initially declining to participate, will his/her premium be reduced immediately or retroactively to the time of enrollment?

 

A2: In the FF-SHOPs, an employee’s or employee’s dependent’s premium will be established for a period of one year upon enrollment, renewal, or re-enrollment of that employee or dependent. At that time, the enrollee or dependent can agree to participate in a wellness program to avoid the tobacco premium surcharge. If the employee or dependent does not agree at that time to participate in such a wellness program, the employee/dependent will have an opportunity to avoid the tobacco premium surcharge upon renewal or re-enrollment.

April 2013 Monthly Topic- New I-9 Form & 2014 Considerations

Our topic this month covers the new I-9 form that was recently released as well as various considerations for 2014.

 

Areas discussed include:

 

• New HIPAA requirements

 

• New FMLA posting & forms

 

• Revised I-9 form

 

• The In & Out’s of the new I-9 form

 

• Wellness Programs

 

• Health Care Reform Updates

 

Contact us today for more information on this topic.