As discussed in our prior blog post, on April 26, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued final regulations (“Reproductive Health Care Rule”) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) limiting the uses and disclosures of protected health information (“PHI”) in
Contraception
Final HIPAA Privacy Rule Increases Protection of Reproductive Health Care Data
By Katrina McCann & Amanda Karpovich on
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) recently issued final regulations (“Reproductive Health Care Rule”) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) that narrow the permitted uses and disclosures of protected health information (“PHI”) in the context of an individual seeking, obtaining, providing…
High Court Employee Benefits Cases: A Review and Look Ahead
By Russell Hirschhorn on
Having settled into the new year, we reflect on decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 that are likely to have a significant impact in the world of pension and welfare employee benefits and, in some cases, already have had such an impact. The issues addressed by the Supreme Court are wide ranging and are both substantive and procedural.
They include same sex marriage benefits, welfare plan reimbursement provisions, statute of limitations and class certification. Looking ahead into 2014, we see that the Supreme Court has already agreed to decide several significant benefits issues, including issues pertaining to Employee Retirement Income Security Act stock-drop litigation, the so-called “contraceptive mandate” under the Affordable Care Act and whether the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax applies to reduction in force related severance pay.
Supreme Court to Resolve Circuit Split in Health Care Reform Cases
By Brian Neulander, Peter Marathas & Robert Rachal on
The Supreme Court will review two of the numerous lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirement that group health plans and insurers cover, without cost-sharing, contraceptives and/or abortifacients (the “Contraceptive Mandate”). The plaintiffs in these suits are secular, for-profit corporations and their owners, and they assert that being forced to comply with the Contraceptive…
Sixth Circuit Rejects Challenge to ACA Based on Religious Beliefs
By Brian Neulander on
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires non-grandfathered health plans to cover certain preventative health services. In a case seeking an injunction to bar enforcement of ACA’s so-called “contraception mandate” on the ground that it infringed plaintiffs’ deeply held religious beliefs, the Sixth Circuit held that secular, closely held for-profit corporations were not “persons” protected by…