Alerts

Effective January 1, 2016, New York City’s Commuter Benefits Law requires that non-government employers with 20 or more full-time non-union employees in New York City must offer all full-time employees the opportunity to use pre-tax income to purchase certain transportation benefits.

Federal regulations require institutions and institutional review boards (IRB) that are responsible for review and oversight of human subject research to prepare and maintain adequate documentation of IRB activities, including minutes of IRB meetings.

On November 10, New York’s attorney general ordered DraftKings and FanDuel to stop accepting bets from the state’s residents, arguing the games constituted illegal gambling.

The Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, a division of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, issued a Medicaid Drug Rebate Program notice to state Medicaid contacts emphasizing appropriate access to, and coverage of, direct-acting antiviral drugs used to treat hepatitis C virus.

Puerto Rico continues to face a fiscal crisis of unprecedented proportion. The island of only 3.5 million people carries a massive debt load of $72 billion and $44 billion of unfunded pension liabilities.

On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law. The two year budget deal increases overall spending limits and prevents the United States from defaulting on its debts by suspending the debt limit through March 2017.

On October 21, 2015, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed eight pieces of legislation, known collectively as the Women’s Equality Act and effective in January 2016, into law.

The E-Warranty Act of 2015 was recently signed into law, amending the Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act, to permit manufacturers and sellers of consumer products the option to post written warranties online.

Brazil has made international headlines with an exploding pension crisis that is wreaking havoc on public finances and threatening to take down the economy of Latin America’s biggest country.

There has been no let-up in the push for a final Trans-Pacific Partnership since the accord was signed by the 12-member countries on October 5th. This is especially true in the US, where US Trade Representative Michael Froman said that the agreement will be the template for future trade pacts.

The Department of Justice recently announced that Tuomey Healthcare System has agreed to pay $72.4 million and enter into a five-year Corporate Integrity Agreement to finally resolve the long-running U.S. ex rel., Drakeford v. Tuomey Healthcare System, Inc. False Claims Act/Stark Law litigation.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently reversed a 2014 decision of the National Labor Relations Board prohibiting mandatory arbitration of class or collective actions in employment disputes.

The Federal Trade Commission has lost an important mechanism for privacy and data security enforcement in data flowing across the Atlantic with the invalidation of the Safe Harbor framework, according to Commissioner Julie Brill.

Free trade agreements have a generic template that negotiators follow. After the various “feel good” provisions outlining the lofty objectives of said agreement, the text quickly turns to the nuts and bolts of the negotiations…

US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released an OIG Alert reminding the public that electronic health records furnished to referral sources may not meet the federal anti-kickback statute’s EHR safe harbor if EHR system has limited or restricted interoperability.

Health care providers and their contractors have been put on notice by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that the next round of HIPAA compliance audits will begin in early 2016.  The previous round of HIPAA audits was completed in 2014.

Sunday, October 18, 2015 marked the official “Adoption Day” of the July 14, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

California passed Assembly Bill 60 (AB60) which allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a driver’s license to any person, which could include an undocumented person, who cannot establish their legal presence in the US but otherwise meets licensing requirements to drive a motor vehicle.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling which could have significant positive implications for those drug manufacturers unhappy with a particular Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration’s interpretive rule.

The 7th Circuit just denied ERISA rights to medical providers, but this doesn’t have to be the result.

AB 465, the California bill that sought to eliminate arbitration agreements as a condition of employment and in other settings, was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. AB 465 will go back to the House for further consideration and will require a two-thirds vote by both houses to overturn the veto.

The decision caused international panic and businesses will be asked questions about their data protection practices. It is important to check where Safe Harbor is built into current agreements and evaluate both business-to-consumer and business-to-business relationships.

Over the weekend, negotiators from the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and eight Pacific Rim countries agreed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest regional trade accord in history, accounting for more than 40 percent of the global economy.  

These action items will not only put you in a better position when a breach arises, but you will have the right answers when a regulator calls.