As several of our clients have encountered, recently employees and their counsel have argued that a woman can choose to take her federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) leave and her Wisconsin FMLA leave consecutively. The situation most often presents itself when a woman requests time off during pregnancy, before the birth of a child, but wants to “save” her six weeks of Wisconsin FMLA leave to use upon the birth of her child. In one case in which von Briesen & Roper represented the employer, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Equal Rights Division (“ERD”) advised an employee that she could “stack” her state and federal FMLA leave in this way. In fact, the ERD found probable cause to believe there had been a violation of the Wisconsin FMLA when an employer told an employee that her state and federal FMLA pregnancy leaves would run concurrently when taken in the 16 weeks before the birth of her child. Our client stood by its position that the federal and state FMLA laws run concurrently when the leave qualifies for protection under both laws and went to a hearing on the merits. Read more…
von Briesen Health Law Blog
February 26, 2010
February 25, 2010
Labor and Employment Law Update
The February 2010 Labor and Employment Law Update focuses on The “Pros” and “Cons” of Social Networking for Employers and New Employment-Related Matters of Note.
February 23, 2010
Health Information Privacy – Breaches Affecting 500 or More Individuals
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, as required by section 13402(e)(4) of the HITECH Act, has posted a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. View a listing of “Breaches Affecting 500 or More Individuals” on the HHS web site.
February 17, 2010
OCI Posts Bulletin Addressing Hearing Aid Requirements
OCI recently posted a bulletin to insurers addressing the new state law requirements for coverage of hearing aids, cochlear implants, and related treatment of infants and children. Group and individual policies and self-insured health plans of the state or a county, city, town, village, or school district issued or renewed beginning on January 1, 2010, must comply with the law.
von Briesen & Roper Law Update: Extending Health Benefits to Children and Domestic Partners Who Are Not Tax Dependents
Historically, employers extending group health plan coverage to the dependents of employees limited the availability of that coverage to individuals who qualified as dependents of employees for purposes of the federal income tax laws applicable to employer-sponsored group health plans. Either by choice or to comply with government mandates, however, employers are increasingly extending dependent coverage to individuals who do not qualify as dependents of employees for purposes of those tax rules (“Non-tax Dependents). Covering Non-tax Dependents can present some significant tax issues and complications for employers. Read more…
February 15, 2010
NPDB Reporting Requirements Expand on March 1
On March 1, 2010, changes to section 1921 of the Social Security Act will go into effect. Section 1921 is intended to provide increased protection against unfit and fraudulent healthcare providers. The new rule expands the information contained in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) to include adverse licensure actions taken against all licensed healthcare practitioners by state and federal licensing agencies, peer review organizations, and private accreditation organizations. Under the rule, this data will be available for the first time to non-federal institutions. As the NPDB is recognized as one of the main credentialing resources, these changes have raised a lot of questions among medical services professionals.
Click here to view the Federal Register, which includes charts that offer a side-by-side comparison of the HCQIA (NPDB), Section 1921 (NPDB), and Section 1128E (HIPDB) to answer the questions:
- Who reports?
- What information is available?
- Who can query?
February 12, 2010
The Joint Commission Issues Sentinel Event Alert
The Joint Commission recently issued a Sentinel Event Alert on maternal death, which includes specific prevention measures for hospitals health care providers. Download the alert on maternal death.
February 8, 2010
New CMS Regulation for Foreign-Born Physicians
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a new regulation regarding the verification of legal status of foreign-born healthcare professionals. CMS provides that:
“If a newly-enrolling physician or non-physician practitioner indicates in Section 2 of his/her Medicare enrollment application (CMS-855I or Internet-based PECOS) that he/she was born in a foreign country, the contractor shall verify that the physician or non-physician practitioner is: (1) a United States citizen; (2) a legal resident of the United States, or (3) otherwise legally authorized to work in the United States. The purpose of this change request is to help ensure that all enrolling physicians and non-physician practitioners are legally authorized to perform Medicare services.”
The regulation will become effective on March 29, 2010.
The full transmittal describing the new regulation can be found here.