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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.”...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Fed Issues Crypto Guidance for Banks The U.S. Federal Reserve has issued guidance for banks thinking about getting involved with cryptocurrencies. The Fed said before doing so banks should determine whether the crypto activities being considered are...

Biden Signs Medicare Drug Pricing Changes into Law Last Tuesday President Biden signed the $700 billion climate change and health care bill passed by congressional Democrats along party lines over the preceding week. In addition to providing $375 billion...

Saying “Our kids deserve a future free of plastic waste and all its dangerous impacts,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed legislation on June 30 th that imposes the nation’s most far-reaching regulations on single-use plastics...

Murphy Signs Suite of NJ Election Bills Saying they “will make democracy more accessible, more transparent and stronger in our state,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a package of seven bills into law last month intended to strengthen...

CA Bills Would Provide Social Media Protections for Kids A pair of bills under consideration in California is aimed at protecting children from social media. AB 2273 would require all online services “likely to be accessed by a child”...

Hospitals Struggling Financially This Year in WA, Nationwide Washington’s acute care hospitals, which provide inpatient and outpatient care in addition to nursing services, posted a 13 percent, or $929 million, aggregate net loss in the first...

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion has created a nightmare scenario for many businesses that want to remain in compliance with the law while still providing the kind of medical care their employees demand...