November 04, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Homelessness, Step Therapy, Abortion Rights & More

CA Gov Blocks $1B in State Funds to Cities Not Doing Enough to End Homelessness Saying “Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) blocked $1 billion in state funding to cities and counties he says are not doing enough to address homelessness in their communities. Newsom said he will withhold the funds until he has met with local leaders...

November 04, 2022

Tech Week: Tech Industry Job Losses, Secure Programming Language Taking Off & More

Tech Company Job Freezes, Cuts Continue Amazon publicly disclosed last week that it was pausing corporate hiring due to economic uncertainty. The news came on the same day that ride-hailing company Lyft said it was laying off 13 percent, or about 650, of its workers, and payment processing platform Stripe said it was cutting 14 percent, or roughly 1,100, of its employees. The announcements come after months of hiring...

November 04, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Geico Class Action Suit, Another Study Faulting FEMA Flood Maps & More

Judge Green-Lights Geico Class Action Suit A federal judge gave the go-ahead for a lawsuit accusing Geico Corp. of overcharging over 2 million California policyholders for car insurance early in the coronavirus pandemic may proceed as a class action. Geico decided to provide $2.5 billion in credits, including 15 percent off renewals to policyholders, beginning in April 2020, in acknowledgement that they were driving...

November 04, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Healthcare Cost Reduction Program in CO, $13.8B Opioid Settlement & More

CO Seeks to Reduce Healthcare Costs through Consumer Incentives Colorado has launched an initiative enabling employers in the state to band together to negotiate lower prices for health care. The program also allows employees that choose lower-cost and higher-quality providers to receive a portion of the savings, ranging from around $50 for a mammogram to thousands of dollars for a surgical procedure. A dozen employers...

November 04, 2022

Employee or Independent Contractor? It’s Complicated

The U.S. Department of Labor last month returned to a question vexing government officials and business leaders coast to coast: What makes a worker an employee versus an independent contractor? On October 13, the federal agency published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to provide guidance on classifying workers , introducing a framework that’s consistent with judicial precedent on the issue. “We have seen...

October 21, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Emergency Powers, Special Election for Cannabis, Anti-Domestic Violence Bills & More

MI Gov Vetoes Suite of GOP Bills to Limit Emergency Powers Saying the measures do not “grapple with the real threats that sometimes necessitate swift action,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) vetoed eight GOP-sponsored bills intended to limit the governor’s emergency powers. The vetoed measures were part of 30 bills the GOP-controlled legislature endorsed to give lawmakers ultimate authority over...

October 21, 2022

Labor Week: New Pay Transparency Requirements in NY, Another Failed Amazon Unionization Effort and More

Pay Transparency Requirements Coming to NY Starting Nov. 1, employers in New York City will have to comply with a new pay transparency law requiring the disclosure of salary ranges in job advertisements. Employers statewide may soon have to comply with pay transparency requirements as well. In June the state’s Legislature passed a bill ( SB 9427 ) that would require employers with at least four workers to include...

October 21, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Proposed Climate Risk Reporting Rule for P/C Insurers, FL’s Hurricane-Resistant Building Codes & More

Feds Proposing Climate Risk Reporting Requirement for P/C Insurers The U.S. Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is proposing a new rule requiring property and casualty insurers to submit homeowners insurance underwriting data to assess climate risk. The idea wasn’t very well received from industry trade groups. “You don’t need a massive data collection to know that climate related losses...

October 21, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Challenges of Shifting COVID Coverage to Private Sector, CVS, Walgreens Prescription Refusals & More

Experts Say Shifting COVID-19 Coverage to Private Sector Poses Challenges Transitioning coverage of COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccinations to commercial insurers poses significant challenges, according to experts gathered for a Kaiser Family Foundation webinar on the commercialization of COVID coverage last week. For one thing, vaccines, tests and treatments won’t shift to the private sector on the same...

October 21, 2022

State Lawmakers Target Travel Nurse Agencies

During the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, travel nurses made national headlines for earning double or triple what nurses employed by health systems were making. Now some states are considering legislation to regulate travel nurse and other healthcare staffing agencies, including how much they can charge for their personnel. Travel Nurses Draw Unfavorable Attention In early September 2021, when the nation was averaging...

October 03, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Animal Protection Measures, Teachers Assessments, Unemployment Fraud & More

CA Gov Signs Suite of Animal Protection Measures Among the hundreds of bills California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed in the closing days of September ( See SNCJ Spotlight in this issue ) were a half dozen measures aimed at protecting animals, including a bill that bans toxicity testing on dogs and cats for pesticides, chemical substances and other products. That bill ( SB 879 ) exempts tests related to products intended...

October 03, 2022

Finance & Insurance Week: Big Fines for 16 Wall Street Banks, Costliness of Hurricane Ian & More

SEC, CFTC Fines for Wall Street Firms’ Record-Keeping Failures Reach $2B Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined 16 financial firms, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, a combined $1.8 billion for failing to prevent their staff from using personal devices and applications for business communications. From...

October 03, 2022

Labor Week: Paid Leave, Wage, Farm Labor Unionization & More

CA Gov Signs Paid Leave, Wage, Farm Labor Unionization Measures California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed measures last week that give Golden State workers greater access to paid and disability leave benefits. Newsom signed SB 951 , which extends increased wage replacement rates for state disability insurance and paid family leave that were set to sunset at the end of the year. The law will phase in the benefits over...

October 03, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Travel Nurse Pay Cap Legislation in MI, Scrutiny of Nonprofit Hospitals’ Charitable Giving in MT & More

MI Among Several States Targeting Travel Nurse Pay Rates Michigan is one of at least 15 states considering legislation to cap pay rates for travel nurses. Michigan’s bill ( HB 6364 ), which would prohibit travel nurse agencies from charging hospitals over 25 percent more than what the agencies pay their nurses, has the support of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. “The MHA supports HB 6364 because...

October 03, 2022

California Enacts Slew of First-in-the-Nation Laws

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law during the month of September, hundreds of bills with potentially far-reaching implications. Will Workers Benefit from Statewide Fast Food Council? The first major piece of legislation Newsom signed was AB 257 , otherwise known as the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, on Labor Day. Authored by Democrat Chris Holden of Pasadena, the bill creates a 10-member...

September 16, 2022

Governor's Spotlight: Social Media Legislation, Child Care Services, Loan Forgiveness & More

CA Gov Signs First-in-the-Nation Social Media Bills California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 587 , a first-in-the-nation bill that requires social media companies to publicly post their policies regarding hate speech, disinformation, harassment and extremism on their platforms. The law further requires companies to make twice-annual reports on their enforcement of those policies to the state attorney general’s...

September 16, 2022

Labor Week: Gig Worker Abuse, COVID Job Recovery & More

FTC Will Crack Down on Gig Worker Abuse The Federal Trade Commission approved a policy statement that announced its intention to protect gig workers from unfair, deceptive or anticompetitive practices. The FTC listed three primary areas of enforcement: holding companies accountable for claims to workers about potential earnings and costs borne by workers; ensuring that restrictive contract terms, including those limiting...

September 16, 2022

Tech Week: Autonomous Vehicles May Never Be Fully Autonomous, CA Lawsuit against Amazon & More

Autonomous Vehicles May Always Require Human Supervision Autonomous vehicle (AV) industry executives and experts say remote human supervisors may always be needed to help robot drivers deal with unexpected incidents or so-called “edge cases.” In addition to employing safety drivers to sit behind the wheel of their cars, many AV startups also use remote human supervisors who monitor video feeds from multiple...

September 16, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: CVS, Walgreens, Amazon Leading Shift to Home Healthcare; OTC Birth Control & More

CVS, Walgreens, Amazon Shifting Healthcare Delivery to Homes This month, CVS announced it was buying home healthcare company Signify Health for $8 billion, adding in-home care to its vertically integrated system that already includes health insurance, retail pharmacy and urgent care. Walgreens recently made a $330 million majority-stake investment in post-acute and home-care company CareCentrix. And Amazon has announced...

September 15, 2022

Will States Lead Way in Regulating DeFi?

Will States Lead Way in Regulating DeFi? Decentralized finance, or DeFi - financial services like banking, borrowing and lending but provided via blockchain technology instead of a traditional financial institution - has exploded in the past few years. That rapid growth and a steady stream of hacks and other problems have earned DeFi a reputation as the “Wild West of Cryptocurrency” and drawn the attention...

September 02, 2022

Tech Week: CA, VA Push in Opposite Directions on Gas-Powered Cars, Potential Settlement of Facebook Lawsuit & More

CA Pushes for End of Gas-Powered Cars Last month the California Air Resources Board adopted the world’s strictest rules for shifting to zero-emission vehicles. Under those rules all new cars, SUVs and pickup trucks sold in the state will have to be electric- or hydrogen-powered by 2035. The move is likely to significantly alter the U.S. auto market, with 10 percent of sales coming from California. (INSURANCE JOURNAL...

September 02, 2022

Healthcare Roundup: Amazon Pulling Plug on Amazon Care, Upcoming Changes to Medicaid Enrollment & More

Amazon Ending Major Foray into Primary Healthcare Amazon announced last week that it will be ending operation of Amazon Care at the end of the year. The online retail giant piloted the urgent care and primary care service with its employees and their families in the Seattle area in 2019 and expanded it to employees across the country and then to other companies, including Whole Foods Market and Hilton. But in an email...

September 02, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Mental Illness, Teacher Shortages, Gas Vehicle Bans & More

CA to Require Mentally Ill Homeless to Obtain Treatment California lawmakers gave their final endorsement to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) proposal to establish a new program to direct persons suffering from severe mental illnesses into treatment even if it is against their will. Newsom sponsored the Community Assistance Recovery and Empowerment Act ( SB 1338 ) and is expected to quickly sign it into law. Under...

September 01, 2022

New CA Legislation Could Impact Websites Across the Nation

New CA Legislation Could Impact Websites Across the Nation The California State Legislature last month approved sweeping legislation that has the potential to impact virtually every website you visit, regardless of which state you call home. The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act ( AB 2273 ) headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom ’s desk on August 30 after receiving widespread, bipartisan support in the Democrat...

August 19, 2022

Governors Spotlight: Sports Betting, Mental Health, Climate Bills & More

Baker Signs MA Sports Betting, Mental Health, Climate Bills Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has signed a number of bills into law this month, including measures that address sports wagering, clean energy, and mental health. Baker signed HB 5060 – a broad measure that, among several things, allows 10 Bay State communities to completely ban or restrict the use of natural gas and other fossil fuels in new...