South Texas College of Law's 23rd Annual Employment Law Conference
Juanita Nañez will be one of the panelists on July 15th's lunch presentation "Texas Diversity: It's Happening Now!" For registration information on the conference and the complete conference brochure, please visit the college's site.
1st Tuesday Connections
Karen Hopkins, along with Brett Myers of David, Goodman & Madole, and Stuart Prescott of Prescott Bailet Benefits LP, will be conducting a panel "The Challenging New Employment Landscape" at the 08.03.2010 1st Tuesday Connections event. This free event includes a networking session afterwards. For the address and other details of theis 3:30pm event, please see the 1st Tuesday Connections website.
Healthcare reform
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury have issued interim final rules on grandfathering plans - health coverage in place on March 23, 2010. The regulations give clarification on what changes can occur to health plans without them losing their "grandfather" status.
Please note that while grandfathered plans are exempt from certain requirements of the Affordable Care Act, the benefits of being deemed "grandfathered" are still unknown.
The regulation allows employers and insurers to make "routine" changes to plans without them losing grandfather status. Routine changes include cost adjustments to keep pace with medical inflation, adding new benefits, making modest adjustments to existing benefits, voluntarily adopting new consumer protections under the new law, or making changes to comply with state or other federal laws. According to HealthReform.gov, plans will lose their "grandfather" status if they choose to significantly cut benefits or increase out-of-pocket spending for consumers. However, premium changes are not taken into account when determining whether or not a plan is grandfathered.