Alert
Published 01/19/2021
By Michael A. Finio
Industries Insurance
​On January 13, 2021, President Trump signed the “Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2020” ( " CHIRA” - H.B. 1418, now Public Law 116-327 .) which partially repealed the 1940s-era “business of insurance” exemption [1] from the antitrust laws. While certain specific activities are not included in the repeal, CHIRA generally eliminates the exemption for the “business of health insurance (including the business of dental insurance and limited-scope dental benefits).” Clearly, the immediate sea change – the elimination of the antitrust exemption – is of significance, but opining just yet...
Blog Post
Published 01/19/2021
By Gregory M. Boucher
Blog Post
Published 01/15/2021
By Sarah Lockwood Church, Dasha G. Brockmeyer, Paul A. Kasicky
Blog Post
Published 01/15/2021
By Michael P. Cianfichi, Antoinette Theodossakos
Alert
Published 01/14/2021
By Sarah Lockwood (Sally) Church, Dasha G. Brockmeyer, Paul A. Kasicky
Services Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
​If you maintain a 401(k) plan (“Plan”), Section 112 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (“SECURE Act”) imposes new rules for Plan participation by your part-time employees if they work at least 500 hours over three consecutive 12-month periods and satisfy any applicable age requirement. These new rules impose new recordkeeping requirements for your Plan beginning January 1, 2021 . Here are the highlights: Under pre-SECURE Act eligibility rules, a Plan could exclude any part-time employee who did not complete at least 1,000 hours of service in any...
Article
Published 01/14/2021
Industries Cannabis Law
Alert
Published 01/13/2021
By Bruce D. Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
In its first enforcement action of 2021, on January 12th, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) announced it settled with Banner Health its fourteenth enforcement action as part of its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). OCR announced the Initiative in 2019 to ensure individuals can easily and timely access their health information at a reasonable cost under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. In 2020, OCR announced eleven settlements as part of the Initiative including...
Blog Post
Published 01/13/2021
By Alexander Reich
Podcast episode
Published 01/12/2021
In this episode, host Jonathan Havens, co-chair of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Food, Beverage and Agribusiness (FBA) Practice, speaks with Tony Pavel, Senior Food Lawyer and Global Food Law Team Leader at Cargill, a global food, agricultural, financial and industrial products company. These former colleagues discuss how food law has grown more complicated over the years, particularly in relation to FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), traceability, the increasing globalization of supply chains, and consumers demanding labeling transparency and vast product information. They also discuss potential regulatory changes on the horizon given both technological advances in data-driven areas, such as rapid testing, and the beginning of the Biden Administration.
Article
Published 01/12/2021
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
Blog Post
Published 01/11/2021
By Jason Tremblay, Gillian A. Cooper
Article
Published 01/08/2021
Industries Government Contracts
Article
Published 01/08/2021
Industries Government Contracts
Alert
Published 01/08/2021
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to: what constitutes adequate consideration by an insurer of a disability claimant’s Social Security disability award; an analysis of various factors for consideration when a plaintiff alleges disability based on subjective complaints, including chronic fatigue and pain; offset of disability benefits based on settlement proceeds received by a claimant; dismissal of a claim for LTD benefits where the claimant failed to exhaust STD benefits; and an analysis of whether attorney’s fees are available on remand to state court after removal based on...
Blog Post
Published 01/08/2021
By Erik P. Pramschufer
Alert
Published 01/07/2021
By Mark D. Simpson, Paul Leicht
Services Intellectual Property
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently issued the decision of Simio, LLC. V. FlexSim Software Products, Inc. (Dec. 29, 2020). In upholding the District Court’s decision that the software claims at issue were patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the Federal Circuit found that improving a user experience does not constitute an improvement to technology under Step 1 of the patent eligibility test enunciated in Alice , and that the specification’s “focus” is taken into account when determining whether a claim is “directed to” an abstract idea under Step 1 of Alice . This...