The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed the start date for data collection of payments made to physicians and teaching hospitals by drug and device manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs). Under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (the “Sunshine Act”), such payments were to have been recorded beginning on January 1, 2012 ...
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DISCIPLINARY MEASURES RELATING TO THE USE OF COMPUTER EQUIPMENT: COCA-COLA IS FORCED TO REINSTATE AN EMPLOYEE THE COMMISSION DES RELATIONS DU TRAVAIL (THE “COMMISSION”) RECENTLY RULED ON THE WAY IN WHICH AN EMPLOYER PROCEEDED TO IMPOSE A DISCIPLINARY MEASURE ON AN EMPLOYEE DUE TO HIS USE OF COMPUTER EQUIPMENT BELONGING TO THE EMPLOYER ...
On December 23, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced that it would postpone its requirement that employers post a notice informing employees of their federal labor law rights until April 30, 2012. As discussed in our NLRB Roundup Part 2, this rule requires physical posting of an 11x17 notice, as well as publication on the employer’s intranet or internet site if the employer customarily uses these sites to communicate with employees ...
As promised, Part 2 of our NLRB Roundup 1 takes a step back from the case law summarized in Part 1 to address other issues surrounding the current Board and its effect on the labor law landscape, including: (i) proposed comprehensive rules altering election procedures; (ii) the NLRB’s final rules requiring employers to post notices informing employees of their rights under the NLRA; (iii) developments on the prosecutorial front relating to social media; (iv) reconsiderat
You have an unproductive employee. You suspect she isn’t getting her work done because she’s spending far too much time surfing the web and sending personal emails from her work computer during office hours. This will not do. So, you log on to her computer after hours to check her inbox and browser history. Sure enough, your suspicions are correct: she’s spending more time on Facebook than doing her job. Armed with this evidence, you call her into your office and dismiss her ...
Given the ongoing worldwide economic concerns and discussion of another recession, it is hard to believe that major provisions of the 2009 Stimulus Act impacting employers have yet to be fully implemented ...
Medicaid providers will be subject to new audits by Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs), beginning in January 2012. These new audits will be in addition to existing audits being conducted by Medicare RACs, Medicaid Integrity Contractors (MICs) and Zone Program Integrity Contractors (ZPICs), among others.1 The Medicaid RAC audits, mandated as part of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Health Reform Act), are expected to result in the recovery of $2 ...
We all know that the employment relationship can involve some give and take. Employees today are better educated and more aware of their rights, and accordingly more willing to voice concerns about management ...
A bill to amend the Workers Compensation Act was given 1st reading on November 3, 2011. One of the proposed amendments could significantly expand the circumstances where a worker may be entitled to compensation for work-related mental stress. Where the present section 5 ...
In a Bulletin released in March of 2011, we outlined important amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (“IRPR”) concerning temporary foreign workers ...
Haynes and Boone, LLP’s Immigration Practice Group reminds employers with a need for H-1B petitions that are subject to the annual numerical limit (“Cap-Subject”) that the annual cap for Financial Year 2012 is almost exhausted. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) has announced that 49,200 H-1B petitions have been received as of October 28, 2011, fast approaching the 65,000 cap. Further, the separate U.S ...
Under final rules issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) will continue to face large start-up costs and uncertain savings, despite a decreased regulatory scheme and increased financial incentives ...
On October 20th, the federal government released a final rule and other companion releases relating to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), a key component of the Affordable Care Act enacted in March 2010. The proposed rule, issued in March 2011, generated extensive comment from the healthcare industry ...
Today the federal government released final rules for the formation and operation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The regulations initially proposed in March 2011 generated considerable attention and comment as ACOs represent a key component of the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare reform legislation enacted in 2010 ...
On September 14, 2011, the Court of Appeal of Quebec rendered a significant decision in the context of the labour dispute which occurred at the Journal de Québec (the “Journal”) in 2007-2008. This decision sheds some light on the scope of the “anti strikebreaker” provisions of the Labour Code (Quebec)1 ...
While employers oftentimes wish to monitor the behavior of their employees, which generally is a rightful intention, it is also the employees' rightful expectation for the employer to respect their privacy and personal data. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the most important rules employers must observe when monitoring their employees.Under the Hungarian Labour Code, an employer may inspect the work of its employees ...
Since our last summary, the Obama Board has taken significant steps to further outgoing Chairman Liebman’s stated goal of bringing the Board “back to life after a long period of dormancy ...
Six months on from the Davies report, Women on Board’, how much progress has been made towards the diversity at the top of UK plcs? Women are under-represented on the boards of UK companies. In 2010, only 12.5% of members of FTSE 100 companies' corporate boards were female ...
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee, arguably the capital of the investor-owned healthcare industry, is taking on healthcare providers and winning. In a series of summary judgment rulings over the past year, the federal district court has assessed tens of millions of dollars in damages and penalties under the federal False Claims Act (FCA). In these cases, the court found that the defendants flagrantly violated clearly written provisions of Medicare rules ...
As a result of OSHA’s recently issued directive on workplace violence, the cops may not be alone in investigating incidents of workplace violence. OSHA is now in the business of policing workplace violence. In the directive, entitled Enforcement Procedures for Investigating or Inspecting Workplace Violence Incidents, OSHA provides its inspectors guidance on their new role – conducting inspections and investigations involving on-the-job violence ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) have responded to the U.S. Senate’s request for information on physician-owned distributorships (PODs). Earlier this summer, a bi-partisan U.S. Senate committee asked CMS and the OIG to study the proliferation of PODs, citing a lack of regulatory guidance on how these arrangements square with existing federal law ...
Since the famous “Facebook firing” complaint in late 2010, many observers have worried that the majority-Democrat National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB” or the “Board”) social media focus was an attempt to establish pro-union, anti-employer precedent, giving employees free rein to disparage and criticize their employers online ...
The decision to outsource is often dictated by financial considerations, with cost saving usually a major incentive, while other important factors might include innovation in service delivery and improvements in service quality. While employment issues are rarely the primary driver in the decision, they can be of vital importance to the success of the project and should be addressed when the transaction is at an early stage ...
UPDATE ON PLANNED PRODUCTION SHUTDOWNS Since 1968, Labour Relations in the Construction Industry have been governed by a specific statute, the act respecting Labour Relations, Vocational Training and Workforce Management in the Construction Indusrty (Hereinafter referring to as "R-20"). AT THE TIME, R-20 WAS ENACTED TO PUT SOME ORDER IN AN INDUSTRY STRUGGLING WITH AN INCREASING NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS FOR CERTIFICATION AND REGIONAL DECREES ...
