President Joe Biden announced Thursday, Sept. 9, that in the coming weeks, companies with 100 or more employees will be required to ensure their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 or test negative for COVID-19 at least once a week.[1] Additionally, employers must provide employees time off to get vaccinated and to recover from any side effects. Press Secretary Jen Psaki previewed the forthcoming requirements in her briefing to the press on Thursday ...
With COVID-19 vaccines fully available in the United States, employers are approaching work-from-home requests differently than they were a year ago. Dinsmore labor and employment attorneys Ashley Pack, Crystal Spivey Wildeman and Aly St. Pierre wrote about the topic in Best Lawyers: The Litigation Issue. An excerpt is below. Employers are facing legal uncertainty in the form of whether to accommodate continued remote-work requests ...
On Aug. 13, 2021, OSHA released updated guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. The new guidance updates OSHA’s recommendations for fully vaccinated employees and for schools, and it supplements certain industry-specific guidance ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that every business—even traditional brick and mortar businesses—needs a presence on the internet. When people think of online commerce, they usually think about making purchases on Amazon. However, as contactless purchasing becomes more prevalent, restaurants, breweries, and distilleries are increasingly developing online options for their consumers ...
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, one of the world’s most talked about and anticipated events, finally kicked off on Friday, July 23, 2021, after a long wait due to COVID-19. Every time the Olympics comes around, a common internet myth will persist that warns: Unless you are an Official Sponsor, you are barred from talking about the Olympics. While that may be true in certain circumstances, it is not always the case ...
Dinsmore's Chris Cashen, Anne Guillory, Chris Jackson, and Kyle Bunnell were published in dri Strictly Speaking, Vol. 18 Issue 1. Their article, "States’ COVID-19 Immunity Statutes and Product Liability Claims Related to COVID-19," examines states’ COVID-19 immunity statutes for product designers, manufacturers, and distributors concerning COVID-19-related lawsuits. An excerpt is below ...
Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for employers only in the health care sector in response to President Joe Biden’s January Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety. The ETS becomes effective on the date it is published in the Federal Register, which is yet to be determined. In addition, OSHA promulgated new non-binding guidance for employers in all other sectors ...
On May 28, 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released updated and expanded guidance on the COVID-19 pandemic’s interactions with federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws. The majority of the new guidance is directed at inquiries regarding vaccination status, vaccine incentives, and accommodations ...
On April 27, 2021, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced revised guidance for Interim Final Rule, CMS-3401-IFC related to Long-Term Care Facility Testing Requirements and the COVID-19 Focused Survey Tool. CMS published the initial interim final rule with comment period on Aug. 25, 2020 ...
On May 11, 2021, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new rule that will require long-term care facilities and residential facilities serving clients with intellectual disabilities to educate and offer COVID-19 vaccines to residents, clients and staff. This new requirement will closely align with current requirements for influenza and pneumococcal vaccines in long-term care facilities ...
On April 27, 2021, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced revised guidance for Nursing Home Visitation. CMS issued its initial guidance in March 2020, via memorandum QSO-20-14-NH. Under this memorandum, all visitation by visitors and non-essential health care personnel was restricted, except for situations involving compassionate care, such as end-of-life ...
The Ohio COVID-19 Indoor Air Quality Assistance Program allows eligible private employers to receive reimbursement for eligible inspections, assessments, maintenance, and/or improvements to indoor heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to help control the spread of COVID-19. Employers are not eligible for this program if any other federal funding has been supplied for the same purposes ...
The U.S. Department of Labor announced the Essential Workers, Essential Protections Initiative on April 26, 2021. The Initiative is designed to educate workers on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ...
If the COVID-19 pandemic affected the value of your property, Ohio Senate Bill 57 (S.B. 57) may offer you (or your triple-net lease tenant) a chance to reduce your Ohio real property taxes not available under prior law. Property tax valuation complaints in Ohio counties can be filed only once in each three-year interim period, and property values are determined as of January 1 of the tax year. Because the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S ...
On April 8, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that some of the blanket waivers implemented during COVID-19 will expire on May 10, 2021.[1] The following waivers will expire: The emergency blanket waivers related to notification of resident room or roommate changes, and transfer and discharge notification requirements ...
PileDriver Magazine published an article by Dinsmore's Lisa Hodgdon and Jason Lambert entitled "COVID-19 Vaccines in the Workplace: 8 Considerations for Employers" in its most recent issue. Read an excerpt below. 1 ...
The new American Rescue Plan Act[1] (ARPA) as signed into law earlier this month provides for $1.9 trillion in economic stimulus, supplementing last year’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act[2] and its $2.2 trillion allocation, both undertaken in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States ...
Last week upon final passage by Congress, President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA or Act) into law.[1] The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill provides a comprehensive package of available funds to qualifying individuals and businesses in the form of direct payments, industry-specific grants, and tax credits ...
On March 9, 2021, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a 45-day extension of the public-comment period for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. OCR first released the NPRM to the public on the HHS website on Dec. 10, 2020, and it was published in the Federal Register on Jan. 21, 2021 ...
On March 10, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in association with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued updated guidance for nursing homes to resume visitation options during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nursing homes have been devastatingly effected by COVID-19, with outbreaks causing high rates of infection and death ...
This week, Westlaw Today published an article by Dinsmore partner J.T. Wilson III about the generational shift in attitudes toward racial equity in light of George Floyd's death and about how business owners and employers must react accordingly ...
On Jan. 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released updated guidance regarding mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. Important highlights are as follows. First, the guidance emphasizes that employers should implement a COVID-19 prevention program for the workplace ...
Two federal cases in the Northern District of Ohio recently reached very different conclusions on whether the state’s COVID-19 shutdowns of restaurants permit valid claims for business interruption insurance coverage. Reviewing essentially the same facts and policy provisions, one court found for the insurer, holding no coverage to exist. The other found for the policyholder, awarding coverage. The opposite results will no doubt lead to further upcoming appellate activity in Ohio ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has just released its annual statistical overview[1] of False Claims Act (FCA) and other fraud actions for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020)[2], and the numbers tell a mixed story. The total of just over $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments represents a decline of more than one-quarter in recoveries from FY2019,[3] likely reflecting workforce, logistical, and judicial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Effective Jan. 26, 2021, all air passengers traveling to the United States will be required to get a viral test for current infection within the three days before their flight to the U.S. is scheduled to depart, and provide written documentation of their laboratory test results (paper or electronic copy) to the airline ...
